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NY Times Platforms ‘Progressive’ Activist Who Called Oct. 7 ‘Provoked’ and Compared Hamas to Holocaust Survivors
A taxi passes by in front of The New York Times head office, Feb. 7, 2013. Photo: Reuters / Carlo Allegri
The documentary No Other Land, a joint Israeli-Palestinian production that won an Academy Award earlier this month, is not “just a film” — at least according to a guest essay in The New York Times by Rania Batrice and Libby Lenkinski.
Batrice, described by the Times as a Palestinian-American activist and “strategist for progressive causes,” and Israeli-American activist Lenkinski, argue that No Other Land is much more than a movie — it’s a “statement, a challenge, and an act of defiance.”
Batrice and Lenkinski argue that the film’s Israeli and Palestinian creators are “defying the zero-sum logic that dominates the region” by working together.
Yet, as they acknowledge, No Other Land has faced criticism from both Israelis and Palestinians. Among the latter, the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign condemned Palestinian activist Basel Adra for collaborating with Israeli filmmaker Yuval Abraham.
According to Batrice and Lenkinski, this opposition has “undermined the joint artistic work that directly criticizes the Israeli government.”
Oscar-winning Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham and Palestinian activist Basel Adra claim to show “life under occupation” in Masafer Yatta, yet their doc distorts the area’s true history. When you start with a pre-written script, propaganda wins out over facts. pic.twitter.com/7z2vLjp2Ev
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) March 7, 2025
This, ultimately, is the core message of their essay: No Other Land presents a model of collaboration in which Israeli activists align with Palestinian efforts to challenge Israel’s legitimacy — what Batrice and Lenkinski euphemistically call “co-resistance.”
It’s a charming spin. After all, “resistance” is precisely the term that Hamas uses for every suicide bombing and stabbing attack it orchestrates against Israeli civilians.
Batrice and Lenkinski are now attempting to repackage the term, stripping it of its violent connotations. See? Israelis are “resisting” too. It’s non-violent. It’s peaceful. It’s art.
“If there is any hope for the future, it lies precisely in these partnerships, in collaboration, and in what the filmmakers aptly call ‘co-resistance,’” they write.
There’s just one problem. One of the essay’s authors had a rather different interpretation of “resistance” on October 7, when Hamas terrorists, aided by Gazan civilians, invaded Israel, massacred 1,200 people, and dragged 251 more back to Gaza as hostages.
On that day — the morning Israelis woke to hundreds of rockets and videos flooding social media of men, women, and children being hunted down, shot, stabbed, and bludgeoned — Rania Batrice was busy amplifying Hamas propaganda.
She shared footage of terrorists paragliding into Israel and opening fire, complete with a text overlay likening them to Jews smuggling weapons into Nazi ghettos during the Holocaust.
Rania Batrice posted a video of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks that described terrorists attacking civilians as “resistance… invading illegal settlements housing illegal settlers.”
Now this “progressive” Palestinian American activist is writing in @nytimes.
pic.twitter.com/7COOZ5XMV7
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) March 17, 2025
And 24 hours later — on October 8, 2023, when even the most committed apologists could no longer claim ignorance about the scale of the atrocities — Batrice doubled down, declaring that anyone who described the attack as “unprovoked” was “part of the problem.”
The Times essay calls No Other Land a “challenge” — and in a way, that’s true.
It’s certainly a challenge to take seriously a film that distorts decades of legal rulings and historical facts so thoroughly that its inclusion in the Academy’s documentary category was an insult in itself.
But the Times essay itself presents an even greater challenge: How does one reconcile its co-author’s supposed belief in the unity of Israelis and Palestinians when on the day of the bloodiest massacre in Israeli history, she was celebrating?
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post NY Times Platforms ‘Progressive’ Activist Who Called Oct. 7 ‘Provoked’ and Compared Hamas to Holocaust Survivors first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Body of Mohammed Sinwar Recovered from Gaza, Taken to Israel
A screengrab shows according to the Israeli Army, Hamas Gaza chief Mohammed Sinwar, taken from a handout video, released Dec/ 17, 2023. Photo: Israeli Army/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – During excavations carried out recently in the area of the European Hospital in Khan Yunis, several bodies were found – i24NEWS learned on Sunday that one belonged to late Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar, which is now being held in Israel.
On Saturday night, the Israel Defense Forces published documentation from the underground space located under the European Hospital in Khan Yunis. The tunnels include a command and control complex from which the fighting was conducted by senior Hamas commanders. During the scans, several additional bodies of terrorists were found.
About three weeks ago, Israel heavily shelled the hospital area, targeting the underground space below it, where the terrorist organization’s headquarters was located. In recent days, Israeli forces have been operating in the area, with an emphasis on underground tunnels, and have located the body. The IDF’s recovery of Sinwar’s body contradicts a previous report, according to which Hamas recovered his body from the tunnel under the European Hospital in Khan Yunis, and buried it in a tunnel in the Deir al-Balah area.
Sinwar was one of the senior and veteran figures in Hamas’ military wing, and took a significant part in the planning and execution of the murderous massacre on October 7, 2023, in which he served as head of the operations headquarters. After the assassination of military commander Mohammed Deif, Sinwar was appointed by his brother, late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, to the position. He was an influential and central factor in the organization’s decision-making, promoting Hamas’s effort to rehabilitate after IDF operations.
Now, Israel possesses the bodies of both Sinwar brothers, with much of the Hamas leadership eliminated in the more than 600 days since the war began.
The post Body of Mohammed Sinwar Recovered from Gaza, Taken to Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Militants Kill Gaza Civilians, Publicly Asserting Brutal Control
A drone view shows buildings lying in ruins, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, Jan. 19, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Al-Basos
i24 News – The Israeli army released footage from the Gaza Strip on Sunday showing a Palestinian brutally shot dead in public by what the military claims is a Hamas militant.
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, General Ghassan Alian, released the footage via military channels. According to the official statement, the brutal execution took place last weekend in a Gaza City square, in front of witnesses. Israeli military authorities described the footage as “exceptional documentation” illustrating the Islamist movement’s methods against its own population.
General Alian addressed the residents of Gaza directly in a statement – “Hamas, terrorists, and criminals are killing you and do not care about your lives,” he said. “There is no difference between a dictator who kills in silence and a terrorist who massacres openly. Both are your enemies and the enemies of life.”
Alian described the act as “a desperate, further, and failed attempt to sow public fear in order to preserve Hamas’s rule, power, and governance, while cynically trampling on and exploiting the residents of Gaza for the survival of the Hamas terrorist regime and the preservation of its rule.”
Meanwhile, the IDF is intensifying its operations in key flashpoints in Gaza, particularly in Jabalia and Khan Yunis. Military forces continue to reach areas where they were not previously present.
The post Hamas Militants Kill Gaza Civilians, Publicly Asserting Brutal Control first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Two of Four Israeli Soldiers Killed in Gaza Building Collapse Identified
Tom Rothstein and the late Uri Jonathan Cohen / Photo: Israeli army spokesman
i24 News – Four Israeli soldiers were killed on Friday in the collapse of a building in Khan Younis during a military operation by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
The incident occurred during an offensive by the 98th Division targeting Hamas infrastructure in northern Khan Younis, near Bani Suheila.
The fallen soldiers were identified as Staff Sergeant Tom Rotstein, 23, from Ramat Gan; Staff Sergeant Uri Yehonatan Cohen, 20, from Neve Yarok; Reserve Staff Sergeant Chen Gross, 33; and Staff Sergeant Yoav Rovor, 19. All served in the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit.
According to IDF sources, the soldiers were part of a mission to secure a Hamas compound believed to contain underground tunnels. A powerful explosive device detonated during the operation, causing the structure to partially collapse and trap the soldiers inside.
Five additional soldiers were wounded—one seriously and four moderately. They were airlifted to hospitals, while search and recovery teams from the Home Front Command worked for hours to extract the bodies from the rubble.
This latest incident brings the total number of Israeli military fatalities to eight this week alone, raising the overall death toll to 424 since the start of the ground offensive in Gaza.
Earlier this week, three soldiers from the Rotem Battalion of the Givati Brigade were killed by an improvised explosive device in the northern Gaza Strip. Reserve Staff Sergeant Alon Perkas, 27, also died during separate combat in the Shejaiya neighborhood.
The IDF continues its operations in Gaza as military and political leaders navigate the high costs of an enduring conflict with Hamas.
The post Two of Four Israeli Soldiers Killed in Gaza Building Collapse Identified first appeared on Algemeiner.com.