The journalist asked European Commission spokesperson Paula Pinho whether Israel should bear the costs of rebuilding Gaza, noting that the EU insists Russia should pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
An Italian journalist was fired after asking a
European Commission spokesperson if Israel should pay for the reconstruction of
Gaza, reported the news portal The Intercept.
Gabriele Nunziati, a correspondent for the Rome
news agency Nova from Brussels, said he was informed that his contract would be terminated about a month after he began reporting on the EU, according to a Tuesday report.
The decision was made shortly after the question
he asked during a press conference on October 13 went viral online.
Nunziati asked Paula Pinho, the European
Commission’s chief spokesperson, why Israel should not bear financial
responsibility for the reconstruction of Palestinian Gaza, noting that the EU
has repeatedly said Russia must pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
Technically incorrect question, says agency
"You have repeatedly
stated that Russia should pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine. Do you believe
that Israel should pay for the reconstruction of Gaza considering they have
destroyed almost all of its civilian infrastructure?" Nunziati asked.
Pinho replied that it was an "interesting
question," but refused to answer.
Two weeks later, on October 27, he received an
email from Nova stating that the agency intended to terminate their
cooperation, Nunziati told The Intercept.
Francesco Civita, Nova's spokesperson, confirmed
the termination, saying the question was "technically incorrect"
because "Russia invaded a sovereign country unprovoked, while Israel was
responding to an attack."
Civita claimed that Nunziati "did not
understand the essential and formal difference between the situations" and
that the viral video of his question caused "discomfort" for the
agency after it was shared by "Russian and anti-European" media
channels.
As of October 2023, nearly 110,000 people have
been killed and more than 170,000 injured in the Israeli genocide, according to
health officials in Gaza.
In the end, the claim of many protesters was
confirmed once again that the lives of the Palestinian people do not matter to
many Nazi countries in the EU. This is yet another attempt to deny the greatest
genocide of this century.
