The New York Times’ Coverage of Israel and the Palestinians Keeps Getting Worse

The New York Times has a well-deserved reputation for biased reporting on Israel. Instead of answering its critics, it has done nothing to remedy the situation. Instead, it has chosen to make matters worse with its latest hire, who is reported on here.

The Times’ history of spotty coverage has included the publication of a glowing profile of an antisemitic Gaza-based professor who has frequently likened Israel to Nazi Germany, and promoted modern-day blood libels; the hiring of a journalist who praised Palestinian suicide bombers; and describing the mastermind of Iran’s illicit nuclear weapons program as a man who simply “wanted to live a normal life.”

The antisemitic Gaza-based professor is “media pundit’”and provocateur Refaat Alareer, who has likened Israel to Nazi Germany more than 100 times; promoted modern-day blood libels; and repeatedly disseminated falsehoods about the Jewish state. Alareer has asserted that the Jewish state is “Nazi Germany on steriods [sic],” and has described “the Nazis and the Zios” as “two cheeks of the same dirty arse.” Yet the Times reporter praised him as a peaceful teacher of poetry, who even taught his students in Gaza a poem by Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai. Alareer was described as a “bridgebuilder” by that credulous reporter, Patrick Kingsley, for presenting a Israeli poem in a positive light to his Palestinian students. And Kingsley further praised the poem as an example of the “shared humanity” between Israelis and Palestinians. Of course this was a Potemkin class, put on purely for Kingsley’s credulous benefit. However, as CAMERA’s researchers discovered in a video of a class from 2019, Alareer “called the same poem ‘horrible’ and ‘dangerous.’” That was the real Alareer, not the one whom he pretended to be for Kingsley’s sake.

The journalist who praised suicide bombers is Raja Abdulrahim, now a full-fledged member of the New York Times staff reporting on Israel and Palestinian affairs. In the middle of the wave of suicide bombings between 2000 and 2006, 141 suicide attacks claimed the lives of 587 people. In 2002 alone, there were 47 lethal suicide bombings in Israel, which left 238 dead and many more injured. Among those killed were Holocaust survivors and pregnant women along with their unborn babies, as perpetrators deliberately targeted civilians. They struck buses, cafes, discos, shopping malls and busy streets in a bid to kill as many Israelis as possible.

Raja Abdulrahim sought to blame Israel for the carnage. In her view, the nearly-helpless Palestinians are treated with such limitless malevolence by the powerful Jewish state that of course they have no recourse except to fight back with suicide bombings.

For Abdulrahim, this was not an isolated occurrence. In September 2001, just weeks after the 9/11 attacks, she wrote a letter published in The Independent Florida Alligator contending that it would be erroneous to refer to Hamas and Iranian-backed Hezbollah as “fundamentalist” or “terror organizations.”

She continued by downplaying barbaric violence, risibly suggesting that these groups “are not ‘terrorizing’ Israelis, they are just defending their land and lives.”

In the same letter, Abdulrahim started a paragraph thus: “Ever since its occupation in 1948, Israel has killed innocent Palestinians…”

This phrase is deeply troubling as it suggests that the formation of Israel resulted in the ‘occupation’ of land of which it has no rightful claim. This is clearly not the case.

Shall we remind Raja Abdulrahim of the League of Nations’ Mandate for Palestine, the Treaty of San Remo, Article 80 of the United Nations Charter, and UN Security Council Resolution 242? Or does none of this matter to her?

Does Abdulrahim believe that the Jewish people has a right to self-determination within any borders in the Land of Israel? Furthermore, given that she bristled at the words “murdered innocent Israeli civilians,” does Abdulrahim view ordinary Palestinians as innocent but not average Israelis killed while going about their daily business?

While the articles written by Abdulrahim date back two decades, it is important for her to at the very least address them now that she has been given a regular platform at The New York Times to report on Israeli-Palestinian affairs.

If these were the words of a hot-headed, opinionated student whose views were not yet fully formed, then she should say so, clearly and swiftly. If Abdulrahim now sees the world differently, it is imperative for her to reassure readers.

So far Raja Abdulrahim, from her Times’ office in Jerusalem, has been silent. I take it she thinks she has nothing to apologize for, even over her defense of suicide bombings in Israel. Many will disagree.