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Systemic Bias? Top Reuters Editors Share Disturbing Content Online

Friends and family mourn Israeli military reservist Sergeant First Class Hadar Kapeluk, 23 who was killed in the southern Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing ground operation of the Israeli army against Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, at his funeral at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem, January 23, 2024. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

Two top news editors at Reuters have shared unsettling social media posts throughout the Israel-Hamas war, HonestReporting revealed last week, casting doubt on their adherence to journalistic impartiality.

The revelation, which comes after a series of exposés by HonestReporting about the news agency’s Gaza-based photojournalists who had either infiltrated into Israel with Hamas on October 7 or praised its terrorists, raises concerns that anti-Israel bias in the wire service hasn’t plagued only its bottom ranks.

The online posts, by Reuters Executive Editor Simon Robinson and Global Foreign Policy Editor Samia Nakhoul, have been visible to many Reuters journalists who follow the two senior editors on LinkedIn and social media platform X. Yet the message of these posts is not a call for fair and balanced reporting on Israel, nor is it a demand for journalists’ objectivity.

On March 3, Robinson posted on his LinkedIn a 7,500-word anti-Israel essay from the London Review of Books that includes criticism of Western media coverage of the Jewish state.

Titled “The Shoah after Gaza,” the essay by Indian author Pankaj Mishra asks questions like: “How can the Western political and journalistic mainstream ignore, even justify, its [Israel’s] clearly systematic cruelties and injustices?”

It also includes claims such as: “The liquidation of Gaza … is daily obfuscated, if not denied, by the instruments of the West’s military & cultural hegemony,” including “prestigious news outlets deploying the passive voice while relating the massacres carried out in Gaza.”

Another paragraph reads: “Why have Western politicians and journalists kept presenting tens of thousands of dead and maimed Palestinians as collateral damage, in a war of self-defence forced on the world’s most moral army, as the IDF claims to be?”

And there’s also, as the title suggests, an inevitable shoehorning of the Holocaust: “A strenuously willed affiliation with the Shoah has also marked and diminished much American journalism about Israel.”

When @Reuters‘ Executive Editor posts on his LinkedIn a 7,500-word anti-Israel essay from @LRB that includes criticism of Western media coverage of Israel, what sort of message does that send his Reuters staff?

Clue: It’s not a call for fair and balanced reporting on Israel. pic.twitter.com/8ax1onYXvi

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) March 4, 2024

As of last week, the post was still visible on Robinson’s profile, with comments ranging from “excellent article” to “that article is horrifically anti-Israel,” and “Why can’t you call for fair and balanced reporting on Israel?”

But the senior editor — who is also Reuters’ Deputy Editor-in-Chief — has kept silent. Perhaps Robinson felt safe in posting that article because earlier in the war, his colleague Nakhoul had seemingly set the tone.

On November 25, she reposted on X a message by BBC journalist Nada Abdelsamad, who had been investigated by her network over accusations of praise for the deadly October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel that sparked the war.

In the Arabic message reposted by Nakhoul, Abdelsamad says she has sued the BBC over “professional abuse against me.”

According to The Telegraph, Abdelsamad had been exposed by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) after retweeting a video of Israelis hiding in fear on October 7, entitled: “settlers hiding inside a tin container in fear of the Palestinian resistance warriors.”

The Telegraph added that it came with a hashtag translated as “promise of the hereafter,” a Quranic reference to the killing of the Jews.

Doesn’t Nakhoul think a journalist who publicly voices such sentiment should be held to account?

An earlier repost by Nakhoul may provide an answer.

On November 3, she reposted a tweet that defended Abdelsamad, claiming “Her sin was to RE-tweet, in the chaotic early hours of 7/10, a news post referring to Hamas fighters as “resisters.”

So does Nakhoul think it’s okay for a journalist to do what Abdelsamad had done?

And would she care to explain that to her Jewish-Israeli colleagues?

What sort of message do Robinson and Nakhhoul’s posts send their subordinates, who look up to them as responsible leaders, mentors, and guides?

As Reuters fails to get to grips with HonestReporting’s exposé of a terror-praising Gaza journalist and others who had called on Gazans to infiltrate Israel on October 7, could it be that something is systemically rotten in the once-respected wire service?

HonestReporting is a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.

The post Systemic Bias? Top Reuters Editors Share Disturbing Content Online first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Antisemitic Graffiti Strikes New York University Days Into New Semester

Illustrative: A student puts on their anti-Israel graduation cap reading “From the river to the sea” at the People’s Graduation, hosted for Mahmoud Khalil and other students from New York University. Photo: Angelina Katsanis via Reuters Connect

An unknown person graffitied antisemitic messages inside the Weinstein residence hall at New York University on Tuesday evening, prompting school president Linda Mills to issue a statement condemning antisemitism and imploring students to uphold the institution’s values.

“The targeting of a Jewish student is inexcusable raw hatred,” Mills wrote in a letter, shared with The Algemeiner by NYU spokesman John Beckman, to the campus community. “As a campus we must speak with a single voice in condemning this act — a terrible violation of our community’s rules and norms. We are providing support to the victim.”

She added, “NYU has a zero-tolerance policy towards antisemitism and other forms of hatred …We are committed to maintaining a community where all feel safe and welcome, to eliminating antisemitism and other forms of hatred. We ask everyone to join us in this effort to uphold our values and send an unambiguous signal about the kind of behavior we won’t stand for in our community.”

Mills also said the incident is being investigated by the NYU’s Campus Safety officers and the New York City Police Department (NYPD).

According to Washington Square News, an independent student newspaper which first reported Tuesday’s incident, NYU had seen another antisemitic only days earlier when a Jewish student’s mezuzah was stolen and later “voluntarily returned” under circumstances the university has not disclosed.

New York University was one of the first major higher education institutions to reform its disciplinary code to respond to the Jewish community’s concerns about rising antisemitism.

In 2024, it updated its Non-Discrimination and Harassment Policy (NDAH), including in it language which identified “Zionist” as a racial dog whistle that sometimes conceals the antisemitic intent of speech and other conduct that denigrates and excludes Jews.

The updated NDAH listed numerous examples of the use of “Zionist” in perpetrating discriminatory behavior, including, “excluding Zionists from an open event, calling for the death of Zionists, applying a ‘no Zionist’ litmus test for participating in any NYU activity, using or disseminating tropes, stereotypes, and conspiracies about Zionists” as well as “demanding a person who is perceived to be Jewish or Israeli to state a position on Israel or Zionism, minimizing or denying the Holocaust, or invoking Holocaust imagery or symbols to harass or discriminate.”

NYU went further, recognizing that Zionism is central to the identities of the world’s roughly 15.7 million Jews, an overwhelming majority of whom believe the Jewish people were destined to return to their ancient homeland in the land of Israel after centuries of exile. “For many Jewish people, Zionism is a part of their Jewish identity. Speech and conduct that would violate the NDAH if targeting Jewish or Israeli people can also violate the NDAH if directed toward Zionists,” the university said.

The NDAH covered examples of behavior that have occurred across the US, both on and off college campuses, especially since the launch of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023.

Last year, NYU paid an undisclosed sum of money to settle a lawsuit brought by three students who sued the school for responding, allegedly, to antisemitic discrimination “with deliberate indifference.”

In resolving the case, NYU avoided a lengthy civil trial which would have revealed precisely who and which office received but failed to address numerous reports that — according to the court documents filed in November 2023 — NYU students and faculty “repeatedly abuse, malign, vilify, and threaten Jewish students with impunity” and that “death to k—es” and “gas the Jews” were chanted by pro-Hamas supporters at the school.

In May of this year, however, university officials withheld the diploma of a graduating student at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study who lied to the administration about the content of his commencement speech to conceal its claim of a genocide taking place in Gaza, an anti-Israel falsehood propagated by neo-Nazi groups and jihadist terror organizations.

“NYU strongly denounces the choice by a student at the Gallatin School’s graduation today — one of over 20 school graduation ceremonies across our campus — to misuse his role as student speaker to express his personal and one-sided political views,” university spokesman John Beckman said in a statement at the time. “He lied about the speech he was going to deliver and violated the commitment he made to comply with our rules. The university is withholding his diploma while we pursue disciplinary actions.”

He continued, “NYU is deeply sorry that the audience was subjected to these remarks and this moment was stolen by someone who abused a privilege that was conferred upon him.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

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Canada vs Israel Davis Cup Match in Halifax Will Be Closed to Fans Due to ‘Safety Concerns’

Israeli athletes competing in the Davis Cup 2025 Qualifiers Israel vs. Germany. Photo: IMAGO/Paul Zimmer via Reuters Connect

A series of Davis Cup World Group matches between Canada and Israel will be played this weekend in Halifax in a closed venue without any fans in attendance due to safety concerns, organizers announced Tuesday.

Tennis Canada said its decision to close off the Canada vs Israel matches on Friday and Saturday was made in consultation with the International Tennis Federation in light of “escalating safety concerns” by local authorities and national security agencies. The games were originally scheduled to take place at the Scotiabank Center, but it remains unclear if the venue is being changed. The series of matches will determine which country advances to the 2026 Davis Cup Qualifiers.

“Intelligence received from local authorities and national security agencies, combined with disruptions witnessed at other recent events both in Canada and internationally, indicated a risk of significant disruption to this event,” Tennis Canada explained. “Ensuring the safety of everyone involved, including athletes, fans, staff, volunteers, and minors, such as ball kids, remains our top priority.” Ticket holders will receive a full refund within 30 days.

Tennis Canada CEO Gavin Ziv said the “difficult decision” was made to maintain the organization’s “responsibility to protect people while ensuring that this Davis Cup tie can still take place.”

“We were forced to conclude that playing behind closed doors was the only way to both safeguard those involved and preserve the event itself,” Ziv explained. “While this outcome is very disappointing, it allows the tie to proceed in Halifax and ensures that our athletes can continue to compete at the highest international level. We are looking forward to returning to Halifax with Team Canada in the coming years to ensure we can fulfill our mission of promoting tennis and creating opportunities for fans and players to engage with the sport in Nova Scotia and across the country.”

Media will also not be allowed to attend the games. Halifax Regional Police did not say if the Israeli team received direct threats but noted that its local officers will be present at the games, according to the Associated Press. The tie will be broadcast on television on TVA Sports, and available for viewing online via CBC Sports’ livestream on CBC Gem, Cbcsports.ca, and the CBC Sports YouTube channel

The Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs criticized the decision. “We all want to know: Are we a nation governed by peace, order, and good government? Or do we let fear and intimidation dictate our way of life?” CIJA wrote in a post on X.

“Cheering for Team Canada is part of what it means to be Canadian. Yet, a small group of extremists have hijacked the Davis Cup, silencing thousands of fans — many of whom traveled from afar — who simply wanted to show pride in their country,” CIJA CEO Noah Shack said in a separate statement. “Tennis Canada’s decision was made to protect Canadians in the face of serious threats. It is unacceptable that hate, harassment, and intimidation have made it unsafe to support our athletes in our own country.”

Tennis Canada faced pressure last month from hundreds of anti-Israel activists — including Canadian athletes and academics, and Olympic runner Moh Ahmed — to cancel the Davis Cup match-up with Israel because of its military actions in the Gaza Strip during the Israel-Hamas war. Both ITF and Tennis Canada insisted that Israel will not be banned from the competition.

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Israel ‘Did Exactly What America Did’: Netanyahu Justifies Qatar Strike, Compares Oct. 7 to 9/11 Terrorist Attack

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during ‘Christian Conference’ in Jerusalem, July 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

On the eve of the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu justified Israel’s recent military strikes on Hamas leaders in Qatar and compared the al Qaeda suicide attacks on US soil to the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Israel’s strike on Tuesday, which targeted Hamas leaders based in Qatar, was widely criticized by governments around the world, including France, Britain, Turkey, and the US. American President Donald Trump said the strike in Qatar “does not advance Israel or America’s goals” while Qatar’s prime minister accused Israel of derailing Gaza ceasefire efforts, in which Doha has been a mediator. Netanyahu said the strike was a direct response to the deadly terrorist attack in Jerusalem on Monday, for which Hamas claimed responsibility.

In a video shared on Wednesday, the eve of the 9/11 anniversary, Netanyahu said Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught — in which Palestinian terrorists murdered 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages across southern Israel — was his country’s version of the Sept. 11 attack that killed nearly 3,000 people and led to the US invasion of Afghanistan.

“We remember Sept. 11. On that day, Islamist terrorists committed the worst savagery on American soil since the founding of the United States,” Netanyahu explained. “We also have a Sept. 11. We remember Oct. 7. On that day, Islamist terrorists committed the worst savagery against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”

Justifying the Qatar strike, the prime minister said the US promised to punish the terrorists responsible for 9/11 and Israel vows to do the same for those who carried out the Oct. 7 attack.

“What did America do in the wake of Sept. 11? It promised to hunt down the terrorists who committed this heinous crime, wherever they may be … Yesterday, we acted along those lines,” he said. “We went after the terrorist masterminds who committed the Oct. 7 massacre. And we did so in Qatar which gives safe haven, it harbors terrorists, it finances Hamas, it gives its terrorist chieftains sumptuous villas, it gives them everything.”

Netanyahu said Israel “did exactly what America did when it went after the al Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan and after they went and killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.” He argued countries worldwide that condemn Israel for the attack in Qatar “should be ashamed of themselves” and “should applaud Israel for standing up to the same principles and carrying them out.”

“I say to Qatar and all nations who harbor terrorists, you either expel them or you bring them to justice. Because if you don’t, we will,” Netanyahu declared in conclusion.

Other Israeli officials who shared messages in tribute to the anniversary of the 9/11 attack include Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Sa’ar. “Remember 9/11. Remember the victims. We stand together in our shared fight for freedom and against terror,” he wrote in a post on X.

In another post on X, former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman noted that Israel’s 9/11 Living Memorial in Jerusalem is the only 9/11 memorial outside the US that features the names of all the victims. “Combining 9/11 with the death of Charlie Kirk makes today especially somber,” he wrote, referring to the Wednesday’s assassination of the conservative activist and Turning Point USA co-founder.

A post on the official X accounts for the State of Israel and the Israel Foreign Ministry said that the 9/11 Living Memorial in Jerusalem “represents the unbreakable bond between our nations.”

“The United States and Israel stand together in grief and resilience, and in the determination to fight terror and defeat it” the post also stated. “The memory of those who died on that fateful day, will forever live in our hearts.”

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