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New York Times Faces Reader Backlash for ‘Arab Woman With Israeli Citizenship’ Line
The New York Times building in New York City. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The New York Times is receiving major backlash from its readers after the newspaper described victims of a cable car crash in Italy as “two British tourists and an Arab woman with Israeli citizenship.”
“I’m failing to see the reason of mentioning the woman’s ethnicity. Why didn’t you mention the two British tourists’ ethnicity since you’re at it?” said one Times reader, Rached Ben Yahya.
“Interesting how NYT is trying to distinguish Arab Israeli citizenship and suggest that Israeli citizenship is ‘imposed’ on her while her true identity is Arab and she is living unwillingly under occupation. Israeli media simply refers to her as ‘Israeli victim.’ I guess NYT is relying on their readers’ ignorance about Israeli Muslim citizens who enjoy full rights in every aspect of society,” another Times reader, Stanley Brill, commented on a New York Times Facebook post.
“NYT always dividing people … She was Israeli,” wrote another Times reader, Iniguez Mariano.
“I wonder if from now on we’ll be seeing the NYT casually describe accident victims as ‘Indian man with British citizenship’ and ‘Jewish man with American citizenship,’” another reader, Boaz Arad, commented on the Times social media post.
“The correct sentence would have been ‘three tourists, two British and one Israeli’ … not only did they decide to single out the Arab woman as being different, they decided solely to highlight her ethnicity. The British tourists didn’t get a similar description,” wrote one journalist and Middle East analyst, Seth Frantzman.
“They want to signal to their readers that it’s OK to be sad she died,” another reporter, Lahav Harkov, wrote in a post on X.
A fellow at the Heritage Foundation, Jason Bedrick, noted, “When Arabs with Israeli citizenship were accused of rape, the NYT just called them ‘Israelis,’” referring to an alleged rape of a British woman in Cyprus in 2019.
The social media crowd had a low opinion of the New York Times’s motives. “They want to let performative Western ‘leftists’ know that it is OK to feel sad that she died because she wasn’t a JEWISH Israeli, in which case, empathy for her would have been ‘Zionist’ and Not Acceptable,” wrote one user, with an account named Benjamin Ze’ev.
“We need to spell it out. A majority of readers of the NYT would celebrate if the victims were Jewish Israelis,” another social media commenter wrote.
The Times reporter responsible for the clumsy language, Elisabetta Povoledo, was ridiculed in 2017 for a sentence that said, “Jews and Catholics have a long history of mutual suspicion and conflict.” “Moral equivalence is our new religion,” was the headline Tablet put over its article mocking that whopper.
Povoledo also was the Times reporter who in 2015 claimed that Pope Francis said to the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, “you are an angel of peace.” Later reports cast doubt on that account, with one saying that Francis was offering an exhortation — may you be an angel of peace” —and another saying that the actual comment was “you are a bit of an angel of peace.”
So a Times reporter with previous instances of clumsiness and apparent inaccuracy when it comes to Jewish and Arab-Israeli issues has now, for the third time in a decade, managed to damage what remains of the New York Times’s reputation.
It’s as if Povoledo were imposing her own opinion that the tourist’s Arab identity is somehow more fundamental than her Israeli citizenship, or she can’t wrap her mind around the reality that Israel has Arabs with full rights serving in parliament, as students in universities, and as doctors in hospitals.
Poveledo’s Times biography says, “I was born in Italy, immigrated to Canada as a child.” It’s another example of the Times shift away from being an American newspaper. The social media editors who pluck the reporters’ sentences for use on social media don’t get bylines, and it’s not clear who was involved in this one or what their nationality or nationalities were. But as the comments on social media make clear, at least some segment of the Times readership — or former readership — has figured out what the newspaper is up to. Those readers — for good reason —are fed up with the different treatment that the newspaper applies to Israel and Israelis, Jewish or Arab.
Ira Stoll was managing editor of The Forward and North American editor of The Jerusalem Post. His media critique, a regular Algemeiner feature, can be found here.
The post New York Times Faces Reader Backlash for ‘Arab Woman With Israeli Citizenship’ Line first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.