Natalie Abulhawa Was Not Fired for Being Pro-Palestinian
The Philadephia Inquirer is now engaging in full-scale apologetics for Natalie Abulhawa, rebranding her antisemitism as merely “pro-Palestinian activism.”
On August 23, 2022, the newspaper ran a lengthy article supporting Abulhawa, a Palestinian-American who was fired from her job in November 2021 as a school athletics trainer for posting vile antisemitism, threats and endorsements of violence on social media.
Abulhawa caught the attention of Canary Mission in 2017. Shortly afterward, she was hired by the Agnes Irwin School, a private school in suburban Philadelphia, Abulhawa’s profile gained the attention of faculty and parents. The school summarily fired Abulhawa.
The Philadelphia Inquirer’s article reads like a press release written by CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations), who Abulhawa retained to file an anti-discrimination lawsuit against the school.
The article, titled “She was fired for being publicly pro-Palestine. One year later, no one is hiring her,” defames Canary Mission for publishing Abulhawa’s publicly sourced social media posts. The 1,600-word article paints Abulhawa as a victim while whitewashing her antisemitism.
Abulhawa Antisemitic Tweets
Numerous times, the article claims that the school fired Abulhawa merely for her “pro-Palestinian activism.” Conveniently missing are Abulhawa’s egregious posts, save two that are buried deep in the article.
When Abulhawa makes the claim: “Israel doesn’t have the right to exist,” the Philadelphia Inquirer disingenuously writes, “Some supporters of Israel interpret statements criticizing Israel as an attack on whether Jews have the right to live in the Middle East.”
Wrong. Supporters of Israel correctly interpret this statement for what it is: a call for the complete destruction of the state of Israel. Some would say genocide.
Even the Philadelphia Inquirer’s most generous interpretation, that it is merely a criticism of Israel – namely, “an attack on whether Jews have the right to live in the Middle East" – sounds a lot like calling for ethnic cleansing.
Conveniently omitted from the article were Abulhawa’s posts expressing antisemitic hate, endorsing violence and laced with profanity. For example: