NEW YORK: An American-Muslim journalist working for a public radio in Baltimore has been dismissed for referring to Israel's occupation of Palestinian and Syrian territories as “brutal”, according to news reports here.

Sunni Khalid, managing news editor at “WYPR-FM”, was fired by the station last week after more than nine years on the job, The Baltimore Sun reported over the weekend.He had been on probation following criticism of comments he made on Facebook about Israel's continued illegal occupation of Palestine.

“I, for one, have had enough of this pandering before the Israeli regime,” he wrote. “The war-mongering towards Iran has, once again, distracted the world from Israel's brutal military occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.”

Khalid, who previously worked for National Public Radio, has also written for Time Magazine, The Washington Times and USA Today.