8 hours ago
Toyota disciplines employee accused of calling BBC editor ‘vile Zionist Jew'
The Japanese car giant Toyota has disciplined an employee who allegedly abused a Jewish BBC journalist on social media.
Piotr Klarowski is accused of describing Raffi Berg, the BBC's online Middle East editor, as a 'vile Zionist Jew' and a 'little rat'.
Responding to a BBC story about Palestinians in Gaza protesting against Hamas, he is alleged to have written on March 27: 'The little rat and Israel fanboy Raffi Berg, the Middle East editor at BBC, was definitely happy to publish this one.'
On April 10, in response to a BBC article on the violent treatment of some Palestinians in Israeli prisons, Mr Klarowski's X account said: 'Is Raffi Berg, the vile Zionist Jew, supporter of Israel's genocide and war crimes and the Middle East editor at BBC on his annual leave?'
And on May 31, the same X account posted a tweet asking if Berg, 'the filthy Zionist Jew', was 'finally sacked'.
An investigation was launched by Toyota's future technology subsidiary, Woven, which employed Mr Klarowski as a senior product experience designer for three years.
It is now understood that following the investigation, Mr Klarowski was subjected to disciplinary measures.
Toyota sources told The Telegraph it took complaints of anti-Semitic and other discriminatory behaviour by its employees 'extremely seriously' and that action had been taken.
A spokesman for the firm said: 'We are aware of media reports regarding alleged social media posts made by one of our employees. Woven by Toyota is committed to maintaining a respectful workplace, and we firmly condemn all forms of discriminatory speech or behaviour.
'An internal investigation was conducted in accordance with our company policies and Code of Conduct, and appropriate action was taken based on the findings. We are unable to comment on specifics of the investigation or the employee for privacy reasons.'
Mr Klarowski's biographical field on his X social media page reads: 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. Israel, a settler-colonial, genocidal, Jewish, apartheid state, has to be destroyed. BDS isn't enough.'
A post from his X account from April 8 said: 'Who runs the world? Jews (Jews).'
That was followed by a post from the same account on May 26, which called Israeli Zionist Jews the 'sickest, most disgusting supremacist, genocidal and subhuman creatures on Earth'.
The post continued: 'Absolute filth. Calling them rats or pigs would only be offensive to these animals and wouldn't come close to capturing how f----d up and irredeemable this society is.'
The posts have since been deleted from Mr Klarowski's account.
Mr Klarowski studied for a bachelor's degree in visual communication and graphic design at Edinburgh College of Art, according to his LinkedIn account. The account has now been removed.
Mr Klarowski was approached for comment.
