The gap between what happened in Israel and the coverage of the “New York Times” was larger than usual in September. Relatively few stories about Israel were published and about two-thirds of them were negative, but the censored reporting distorted the picture in a particularly jarring way. Almost every day we experienced an attack or an attempted attack, but 52 headlines that occupied a major volume in the media in Israel were demonstrably ignored. Terrorism shaped the national mood and our discourse, but it did not reach the readers of The Times.
During the month, two general articles “about the situation” were published. Their headlines focused on Palestinian deaths with a negative tone towards Israel, and not only did they not condemn the rising terrorism – the word “terrorism” was not even mentioned. The number of terrorist incidents was not mentioned anywhere, as well as major incidents such as the attack on the bus in the Bekaa, the capture of the terrorist on his way to the attack in Jaffa, the stabbing attack at the Shilot intersection or the murder of the elderly woman in the middle of the street in Holon. The high alert for the holidays was not mentioned, as were the Ministry of Defense’s updates regarding the number of shooting incidents since the beginning of the year.
Two opinion articles about Israel were also published. One argued that “Israel should do more to prevent Palestinian casualties”, without any necessary comparison between the proportion of casualties not involved in IDF operations compared to the proportion of casualties not involved in the activities of other armies. The opinion piece was published on the day the late officer Bar Falah was killed, An event that was simply not reported.
The second opinion piece was written by the director of the Al-Haq human rights organization, which was declared to be aiding terrorism. Its title was “We Document Human Rights Violations, Israel is Trying to Silence Us”, and the whole thing focused on slandering Israel.
According to the Shin Bet, there are 166 registered organizations working for the human rights of Palestinians in Israel and another 100 that are not registered. Only six were identified as such and about 70% of their funding finds its way to terrorist organizations. These numbers were not reported anywhere in The Times. I sent a short response to this to the newspaper editors as part of letters to the editor, but needless to say it was not published. It seems that the newspaper editors are not very interested in such facts.
Ignoring the murder of journalists
The month opened with an article about the execution in Gaza of five Palestinians accused of spying for Israel. Since the word “Hamas” did not appear in the title or subtitle, it was difficult to understand who was responsible for the death, and it was easy to get confused and think that it was Israel. The only reference to human rights in the article was also in the context of Israel, which “prevents Gazans from entering and pressures those who are allowed to enter to provide information.” It was not explained why Israel prevents Gazans from entering its territory, but Hamas’s attitude towards collaborators was explained at length – and in a way that almost justifies them.
In contrast to the softened attitude towards Hamas executions, the accidental death of Shireen Abu Aqla received the 19th headline since the incident. At the beginning of the month, an American journalist was murdered in Las Vegas, with a local politician suspected of his murder. The “New York Times” covered the event with only four headlines. Since the beginning of September, three more journalists have been murdered in the world and a fourth journalist has been killed in his job (a total of 55 journalists have been killed since the beginning of 2022). The “Times” only reported the murder of one of them, and in only one headline.
The German apology for the Munich massacre was headlined, but the terrorists at the time were defined as “Palestinian militants”. There was also a report on the return of the ambassador from Morocco, on Palestinian anger over the casting of Shira Haas to portray the character of “Sabra” in Captain America, on the return of the ancient Jewish coin, and we also received an article with a positive tone about Israelis who succeed in producing wine in the Negev. In the bottom line, the issues that preoccupied Israel and generated public discourse around its policies were hardly expressed at all.
Human Rights?
Regarding the opinion piece of the al-Haq organization, the “Times” treatment of the issue of human rights is extremely disturbing. It is not just about executions in Gaza that are accepted with equanimity, as if this is the nature of things, but also about significant Palestinian suffering that has no place and no voice.
On September 18, a chilling report was published by a human rights organization that monitors Palestinians in Syria. The report revealed that in the last three years, 638 Palestinians were tortured to death by Syrian intelligence officers, of whom 37 were women. The fate of another 1,797 is unknown (of which 110 are women). In total, 4,121 Palestinians were killed in Syria in the last decade, and no one has heard of them or of the AGPS organization, which published the shocking numbers by any standard.
Journalist Khaled Abu Tuama regularly publishes stories about the fate of Palestinians in the PA, the ones no one cares about. In September, two journalists and a photojournalist were arrested in Jenin because they dared to share materials that the Palestinian Authority is not interested in publishing. One of them published photos of Hamas militants in Jenin, another photographed demonstrations in Nablus. They are detained in the “Slaughterhouse of Jericho”. While the New York Times focused on the journalist Shireen Abu Aqla, on the detainees being tortured in this prison, or on their family members who are protesting and on hunger strike out of total desperation, no one heard.
The strange codes of morality, according to which it is appropriate to publish only injustices inflicted on the Palestinians by Israel, leave in the dark the hundreds and thousands of the most brutal cases. In fact, this strange morality does not leave an opening for Palestinians who want to go against Hamas and Jihad, or even report a shred of their actions. The newspaper’s decision to show understanding to Hamas and Jihad and not to call them “terrorist organizations”, in fact condemns the Palestinians to the continuation of terror control – while systematically silencing their suffering.
Nasrallah who?
It is interesting to note some specific events and the way they were covered in the newspaper. Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s speech at the UN, which created a whirlwind of headlines in Israel due to the mention of the two-state solution, was not mentioned in The Times. Dozens of Hizbollah’s threats to Israel in view of the discussions with Lebanon on the drawing of the maritime border were not mentioned at all during the last months, and not even in September.
Towards the end of the month, a wide article was published about the agreement that is taking shape, and that the results of the agreement may affect the supply of gas in Europe. The entire article dealt with the global economic aspects of the agreement, and all of Hezbollah’s threats were condensed into a short and condescending sentence near the end of the article.
It seems that ignoring Hezbollah is part of the newspaper’s policy. During the month, a large article was also published about the darkness that has become a means of oppression in collapsing Lebanon, and about the pace of life that is changing due to the long power outages. It was quite amazing to discover that the word “Hezbollah” simply did not appear in the article even once.
The word “Hezbollah” has appeared on the site only 40 times since the beginning of the year, of which three times as part of a title or sub-heading. Once for the fact that Hezbollah lost the majority in the elections in Lebanon, the second time as part of the aforementioned article, and the third time in the article published in October. In fact, the “Times” had no coverage of Hezbollah’s terrorist activities.
This week a big article was finally published about the political aspects of the maritime border, on the day when Lebanon and Israel declared their agreements. The subtitle announced that the deal would prevent a conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, without specifying who threatened whom. Hezbollah was defined in the article as a “militia supported by Iran”. Nasrallah’s name was not mentioned at all, and the ghost dance of the hundreds of headlines we experienced about his threats, including the drones that were sent towards Sde Harish and intercepted, were reduced to two short sentences. This concluded the “coverage” of the affair.
The lie rules
It is important to mention another story that was not told in the follow-up because it was published in the culture pages: a warm recommendation to watch a film by a Palestinian filmmaker. In the first paragraph, the film is described as an opportunity to see the daily difficulties in the apartheid state. This was not the first time this month that Israel was described as an apartheid state, as if it were a fact. In practice, this is a lie and not an official recognition of any country – after all, there are no racial laws in Israel, and Israel’s attitude towards the Palestinians stems from the fact that their leadership defines Israel as an enemy entity and opposes its existence. The attempt to clothe the conflict with the motivation of racism is part of the attempt to delegitimize Israel.
This plot is quite common, and unfortunately it is also supported by a handful of Israelis who are taken advantage of by anti-Israel and anti-Semitic elements, and it leads to rather strange places. For example – nine student organizations at Berkeley University made a decision this month not to allow supporters of Israel to speak at events. The decision was covered in other media as the creation of “Jew-free zones”, and we all know what that sounds like. When you want to justify hatred, there will always be excellent excuses. The apartheid plot is one of them.
The New York Times did not cover what happened in Berkeley, but comments about “apartheid” and “genocide” are occasionally thrown in. Usually the comments are attributed to some person, which seemingly makes the mention legitimate, one that does not require explanation, expansion or response. I checked the site’s archives, and it turns out that the words “Israel” and “apartheid” appeared together 36 times since the beginning of the year in various articles. The words “Hamas” and “terrorism”, however, appeared together only five times. That is to say – the plot is mentioned seven times more aggressively than the official truth accepted by the administration in the USA. Is it any wonder that Berkeley reaches such delusional conclusions?
It is ridiculous to think that those who write in this style live with the feeling that they are brave and express silenced voices. The reality is the opposite – these voices are heard endlessly, while the threats against Israel are systematically silenced, as well as the Palestinian regime’s abuse of its citizens. This statement is not an “opinion” that comes from feelings or impressions, but a fact that comes from daily monitoring that allows you to see things clearly, through the numbers.
Monitoring is carried out on the home, opinions, world and ID pages of the New York Times website.