I’m sorry, but no. The author, as a journalist, posting to a publication with editors, does not get a pass about using a very, VERY well known symbol of the Holocaust.

Particularly in a time where the comparisons to that era are flying fast and furious, even if they somehow managed to be that poor a student of history that they somehow missed that, they should have taken the time to at least brush up on that period.

The author knew exactly what they posted and their editors who let it through did too.