A JOURNALIST sacked by Associated Press (AP) hit out at so-called “cancel culture” on Saturday when her contract was terminated following attacks on social media over her support for the Palestinian people.

Emily Wilder was fired just two weeks after she was employed to write news for AP from Arizona, with the media giant saying she had breached its social media rules.

This includes a clause that requires employees to remain silent “on contentious public issues” and not to engage in campaign activity.

AP opened investigations following pressure from a right-wing Republican group based at Stanford College, a private university in the state of California from which Ms Wilder graduated last year.

Ms Wilder, who is Jewish, was active in a number of groups including Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine during her time at the university, where she campaigned against the actions of the Israeli government.

Stanford College Republicans were angered over her description of the treatment of Palestinians as “ethnic cleansing” and complained that she described far-right commentator Ben Shapiro as “a little turd” after they invited him to address their group on campus.

Ms Wilder claimed that AP was fully aware of her previous activism and had assured her that it was not a problem.

In a tweet last week she complained over the use of language in the media to describe Israel’s onslaught against the Palestinian people and was sacked just days later.

Her termination letter said the firm had been pressured into conducting investigations by the online complaints over her activism.

“That’s an admission this was prompted by the campaign against me,” she said.

“It’s really unfortunate the Associated Press is abdicating their responsibility to not only me, but to all journalists, just because a group of college students wanted to engage in a witch-hunt.”

AP was among the media organisations targeted on May 15 when Israel destroyed the al-Jalaa tower block in Gaza, claiming without evidence that Hamas was also using the building.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the tower as a “legitimate” target, with the occupants being given just one hour to leave before it was struck by a missile.

Prior to that attack the al-Jawhara tower, which hosted the offices of 13 media organisations, was flattened. This was followed by the destruction on May 13 of the al-Shorouk tower, housing 15 media organisations.

Speaking at last week’s National Union of Journalists national delegates meeting, the head of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate reported that 120 media workers had been injured during the Israeli bombardment.

At least one journalist, Yusuf Abu Hussain, was killed in an Israeli air strike.