Helen Thomas, the White House reporter of the lengthiest employment has been forced to resign after advising the Israelis to leave the occupied Palestinian territories.
Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine.
Remember these people [Palestinians] are occupied, and its there land..
Helen Thomas,
reply to question "Any comments on Israel?" during the flotilla massacre.
Helen Thomas quit the job on Monday, a week after saying during the Jewish Heritage Celebration, "Tell them (Israelis) to get the hell out of Palestine," AFP reported.
"Remember these people are occupied and it's their land, not German and not Poland," she said. "They can go home, Poland, Germany, and America and everywhere else."
However, the 89-year-old veteran reporter later posted an apology on her website.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Monday that the remarks were "offensive and reprehensible."
Darrell West, vice president and director of Governance Studies at Brookings Institution, said that Thomas made the mistake of saying something publicly against Israel in the US, where Israel carries favor.
"Washington is not a very forgiving town. Even if it is one short statement that people don't like. ... You can lose jobs over that. You can lose your social cache," he told Press TV.
She worked as a correspondent for United Press International (UPI) for 57 years from 1943 to 2000.
She then joined Hearst Newspapers as a columnist, covering national affairs and the White House.
Ms. Thomas was the first female officer of the National Press Club, the first female member and president of the White House Correspondents Association, and, in 1975, the first female member of the Gridiron Club.
Helen Thomas has been a fixture at White House press conferences for decades and was often allowed to ask the first question.
Clips featuring Helen Thomas in action
Question to President Obama:
"Mr President, do you know of any country in the Middle-East that has nuclear weapons?"
"1763 in the Ohio river valley you got Lord Jeffrey Amherst committing to written order an instruction to his subordinate Henry Bouquet, having been defeated by Pontiac Ottawa confederacy in the field. The order essentially says that they have been defeated militarily and is therefore necessary for Amherst forces to request a peace, to sue for peace from Pontiacs people. He instructs Bouquet to convene a parlay with the Indian leadership for that purpose. And as is the custom, as is common courtesy among native populations as was known to the Brits at that time, it would be necessary for those who requested the council to give gifts to those requested to attend. Make those gifts, Amherst says, items taken from a smallpox infirmary in order, I'm going to quote directly now, this isn't a paraphrase: 'in order that we may extirpate this execrable race'. Now key is on this last word, had he said that we might eradicate the opposing combatants, their military capacity, their warriors.. what ever term he wanted to use, it would have been biological warefare. But he didn't say anything about that, he said the 'race'. His intent was to use biological means, to use disease, quite explicitly so, to eradicate an entire population group. And Bouquet was also kind enough to commit to writing in his response the next day, I have done as instructed, dispersing three blankets, two handkerchiefs and sundry other items, hopefully, he says, they will have the desired result. They did.. the lowest estimate of the number of people who died of smallpox as a result of that little gesture of friendship and goodwill is a 100,000!"