CNN headquarters in Atlanta. Image by Randomwire / flickr

(JTA) — A photo editor who began working at CNN in January resigned after some anti-Semitic tweets he made in 2011 were discovered.

Mohammed Elshamy, a 25-year-old former photojournalist with the Anadolu news agency, quit Thursday night after an employee of Israel’s Government Press Office flagged on Twitter some of the anti-Semitic statement by Elshamy, who recently graduated from Cairo University.

“More than 4 jewish pigs killed in #Jerusalem today by the Palestinian bomb explode. #Israel #Gaza,” one of his tweets, following a terrorist attack, read.

Antisemitism Notebook

Your weekly guide through the news and the noise of how rising antisemitism and disputes over how to address it are shaping American Jewish life.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

The bombing killed a Christian woman who was studying in Israel and severely injured a 14-year-old Israeli girl who died of her injuries six years later.

“Despite everything happening now in Egypt, I’m proud of the army generation that liberated us from the zionist pigs @ 6 october 1973 #israel,” Elshamy, who worked at CNN’s Atlanta headquarters, wrote in another tweet from 2011, referencing the last war between Egypt and Israel.

“The network has accepted the resignation of a photo editor, who joined CNN earlier this year, after anti-Semitic statements he’d made in 2011 came to light,” the CNN network’s spokesman Matt Dornic said in a statement to several media outlets. “CNN is committed to maintaining a workplace in which every employee feels safe, secure and free from discrimination regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation or religion.”

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$36 $500

$120 $180 Other amount