RSS
The Wall Street Journal’s Israel Coverage Is Extremely Biased
An aerial view shows the bodies of victims of an attack following a mass infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip lying on the ground in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, in southern Israel, Oct. 10, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ilan Rosenberg
Throughout the 10 months of war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, The Wall Street Journal’s opinion page has been one of mainstream media’s most sympathetic to Israel and its fight against terrorism.
With riveting analyses and a wide range of perspectives, the Journal’s opinions page stands out as a light in the darkness.
However, the same cannot be said of the Journal’s news section.
Since Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel on October 7, HonestReporting has called out the Journal numerous times for its subtle (and, sometimes, unsubtle) bias against Israel and the Jewish State’s justified war against Hamas.
This bias takes the form of misleading its readers by leaving out vital context, whitewashing Hamas, and relying on Hamas propaganda as a legitimate news source.
The Wall Street Journal’s Bias Against Israel Since October 7
One of the key ways in which The Wall Street Journal’s reporting is biased against Israel is by the omission of vital information needed for its readers to fully understand Israel’s actions and what is happening in Gaza.
For example, in early November 2023, the Journal wrote that even though the IDF had been encouraging Palestinians to leave northern Gaza for three weeks, “many Gazans have been unable to flee due to ongoing Israeli airstrikes,” implying that Israel was solely responsible for putting local Palestinians in harm’s way.
However, what this article failed to inform Journal readers is that many Palestinians were also being prevented from venturing south due to Hamas attacks on those who were trying to flee northern Gaza.
Similarly, a month later, after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas broke down, the Journal headlined its article “Israel Resumes Combat Operations in Gaza as Ceasefire Stalls,” focusing on Israeli actions and ignoring Hamas’ resumption of rocket fire against Israel that preceded Israel’s resumption of military operations in the Gaza Strip.
We’ve fixed it for you, @WSJ. There’s one side that broke the ceasefire before it expired. Clue: It wasn’t Israel.https://t.co/ThrdpBtMRX pic.twitter.com/X3ad1VZk33
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) December 1, 2023
And it’s not only reports on the current conflict between Israel and Hamas that are misleading and lacking a proper context. For example, in the last weeks of December 2023, the Journal published two articles that featured misleading claims about Israel in general.
The first, about Israeli immigration policy, made it seem as if Israeli law is somehow discriminatory against non-Jews. However, as HonestReporting noted, the naturalization process for non-Jews to become Israeli citizens is similar to the process found in other democratic countries and is not inherently discriminatory.
The second misleading claim was made a week later, when the Journal reported that the imposition of the Israeli/Egyptian blockade of Gaza in 2007 following Hamas’ violent ascension to power ended decades of Gazan employment within Israel, implying that Israel purposefully made conditions harder for innocent Palestinians living in Gaza.
This is simply not true as, up to October 7, 2023, roughly 18,000 residents of Gaza had permits to work in Israel.
The Journal’s misleading pieces on the conflict continued into 2024, with a January report referencing Israel’s conducting “strikes on hospitals and other key infrastructure in its pursuit of the tunnels” with no mention of Hamas purposefully embedding itself within these “civilian” sites.
A June article referenced the closing of the Rafah crossing since Israel’s invasion of the southern Gazan city, but did not mention the fact that Egypt is the one intent on keeping it closed, not the Jewish State.
Actually, @WSJ, Israel has said it has conducted strikes on key Hamas infrastructure that the terrorist organization purposely built underneath hospitals, mosques, schools, and homes.
Fixed it for you. https://t.co/N4sp1SJwjS pic.twitter.com/WQnf9SCJGB
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) January 28, 2024
Another aspect of The Wall Street Journal’s biased reporting is its whitewashing of Hamas.
Even on October 7, as Israeli forces were battling Hamas terrorists in southern Israel, the Journal published an explainer piece on the internationally-recognized terror group that included the false claim that Hamas is focused on creating an independent Palestinian state and has been open in recent years to a two-state solution.
The piece ignored the fact that Hamas views this “openness” as a temporary step in achieving its ultimate goal of destroying the Jewish State.
Months later, the Journal once again whitewashed the terror group when it referred to Hamas’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh in a headline as the “leading advocate for a Gaza cease-fire,” ignoring his long history of advancing terrorism against Israelis and his support of the October 7 attack.
Hamas Charter: we will “raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine… Peace initiatives are in contradiction to our principles.”@WSJ: “Hamas has indicated it is willing to accept a two state solution” and suggests Israel escalated the hostility. pic.twitter.com/thtXyaJjXs
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) October 7, 2023
Aside from whitewashing Hamas, the Journal’s reporting bias also extends to its uncritical reliance on Hamas as a source.
For example, in the immediate aftermath of the explosion at Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza in October 2023, the Journal’s headline parroted Hamas’s talking points, writing that “Israeli airstrike on Gaza hospital kills more than 500, Palestinian officials say.”
Hours later, it was determined that the explosion was caused by an errant Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket, and that the casualty numbers were much lower than the 500 that the Journal initially reported.
Months later, the Journal continued to take Hamas propaganda for granted, including buying into the claim in May 2024 that Hamas had agreed to a ceasefire (which it had not negotiated with anyone except itself), and repeating the claim that an August attack by the IDF on a Hamas center had killed “dozens of civilians.”
In fact, the Journal’s reliance on Hamas’s uncorroborated facts led it to wonder what could account for the discrepancy between the IDF’s assertions and Hamas’ claims, ignoring the fact that the former is a sovereign democracy’s military while the latter is an internationally-recognized terror organization.
Do @WSJ just take Hamas’s statements as fact? pic.twitter.com/CI1IXbSI2F
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) October 17, 2023
The Wall Street Journal’s Poisoned Pen
Aside from its implicit bias, another issue with The Wall Street Journal’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict is its reliance on contributors with a history of hostility to Israel, who help contribute to the distorted framing of the newspaper’s narrative.
In the first month of the war, HonestReporting shined a light on Palestinian journalist Fatima AbdulKarim, who had been affiliated with the Journal since before the war.
Based in Ramallah, AbdulKarim has a history of incendiary social media posts that accuse Israel of “Apartheid” and “ethnic cleansing,” rely on anti-Israel sources like Breaking the Silence and Defense for Children International-Palestine (a front for the PFLP terror organization), and distort the news in order to whitewash Palestinian terrorism and smear Israeli actions.
In August 2024, HonestReporting uncovered the hate-filled social media history of Journal contributor Abeer Ayyoub, who celebrated October 7 on X (formerly Twitter), spread fake news about a kidnapped Israeli general, mocked Israel in its darkest hour, and whitewashed Hamas’ terrorism.
To solidify her anti-Israel presence online, Ayyoub commented in Arabic “Eat sh*t” on a message of sympathy with Israel by X owner Elon Musk on October 7.
With contributors like Fatima AbdulKarim and Abeer Ayyoub, is it any wonder that there is a noticeable trend of bias that permeates The Wall Street Journal’s ongoing coverage of Israel’s war against Hamas?
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 The Wall Street Journal’s Israel Coverage Is Extremely Biased first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Anti-Israel Groups Oppose California Holocaust Education Bill That Passed Unanimously
Nihad Awad, co-founder and executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Photo: Screenshot
Major anti-Israel groups opposed a Holocaust education bill in California that passed unanimously in the state’s legislature.
Last week, the California State Assembly and Senate approved Senate Bill 1277 by margins of 76-0 and 40-0, respectively, representing rare unanimous, bipartisan agreement.
The bill established a state program called the “California Teachers Collaborative on Holocaust and Genocide Education.”
According to the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California (JPAC), the state “has required Holocaust and genocide education to be taught in public schools” since 1985. However, it continued, “most schools are not up to state standards, and there is no systematic teacher training to help bridge the gap. The Collaborative is led by JFCS [Jewish Family and Children’s Services] and brings together 14 leading Holocaust and genocide education institutions from across California.”
JPAC’s executive director, David Bocarsly, said in a statement that despite the importance of Holocaust education, “unfortunately, in many schools across California, we’ve seen how such education is simply non-existent or not meeting state standards.”
Despite the unanimous vote and the seemingly uncontroversial content of the bill, it garnered opposition from radical anti-Israel and progressive organizations such as Jewish Voice for Peace, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and the Coalition for Liberated Ethnic Studies.
The bill “was surprisingly opposed by Jewish Voice for Peace, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and the Coalition for Liberated Ethnic Studies,” JPAC wrote in a press release.
The root of this opposition, the group claimed, had to do with opposition to Israel: They argued that Holocaust educational institutions should not contribute to Holocaust education if those institutions also support Israel.”
But JPAC noted that “all major US Holocaust educational institutions do [support Israel].”
“Despite such disingenuous opposition,” JPAC added, “the bill’s overwhelming bipartisan support in the legislature demonstrated the desire for such education.”
The Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) was another organization that opposed Senate Bill 1277.
The legislation would “put genocide education in the hands of anti-Palestinian organizations that deny Israel is committing a genocide,” Lara Kiswani, executive director of AROC and a lecturer at San Francisco State University, told the progressive news organization Truthout.
The opposition to the bill was despite the fact the program would go beyond just Holocaust education.
“In addition to the Holocaust, educational groups about the Rwandan, Cambodia, Guatemalan, Uyghur, and Native genocides are members of the Collaborative,” JPAC noted. “Together, they develop curriculum, train 8,500 public school teachers, and educate one million students by 2027 – including teachers and students in every California local educational agency (LEA).”
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) has a long history of celebrating and justifying terrorism against Israel. It created and distributed flyers that read “L’Chaim Intifada” at the height of the second intifada, which featured more than 130 suicide bombings against Israeli civilians and countless shooting and stabbing attacks. The flyer also included a picture of Leila Khaled, a Palestinian terrorist who hijacked a plane in 1969 and attempted to do it again a year later.
JVP has also supported rallies calling to “globalize the intifada” and local chapters have celebrated Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, claimed Hamas treated the hostages it kidnapped well, and argued the terrorist group does not pose a threat to Jews.
Additionally, in November, CAIR co-founder and executive director Nihad Awad said “yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land, and walk free into their land, which they were not allowed to walk in,” referring to Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, when the terrorist group killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
“The people of Gaza only decided to break the siege — the walls of the concentration camp — on Oct. 7,” he said.
About a week later, the executive director of CAIR’s Los Angeles office, Hussam Ayloush, said that Israel “does not have the right” to defend itself from Palestinian violence. He added in his sermon at the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City that for the Palestinians, “every single day” since the Jewish state’s establishment has been comparable to Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught.
The post Anti-Israel Groups Oppose California Holocaust Education Bill That Passed Unanimously first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Journalist Linked to Terror Group Faces Backlash for Peddling Anti-Vaccine Conspiracies Amid Gaza Polio Crisis
Bisan Atef Owda in a scene from “It’s Bisan From Gaza, I’m Still Alive After Six Months Of Bombing.” Photo: YouTube screenshot
Bisan Owda is facing criticism from fellow Palestinian journalist Hind Khoudary for casting skepticism on the ongoing polio vaccination drive in Gaza, arguing that her misinformation could endanger the lives of the enclave’s civilians.
Khoudary took to social media to vent his frustrations with what he described as Owda’s attempts to derail the World Health Organization-led vaccination drive through peddling unsubstantiated conspiracy theories to the residents of Gaza. Khoudary claimed that Owda’s social media commentary risked undermining the efforts by humanitarian workers in Gaza to prevent a devastating disease from wreaking havoc on the war-torn enclave.
“We’ve spent weeks tirelessly working on the polio vaccination campaign, focusing especially on raising awareness among parents about the importance of vaccinating their children,” Khoudary wrote in an Instagram story.
“Now, a filmmaker with millions of followers has released a video urging parents not to vaccinate their kids, spreading conspiracy theories and undermining everything we’ve worked for,” Khoudary continued.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) are spearheading a campaign to distribute polio vaccines throughout the Gaza Strip. The organizations called for a seven-day temporary ceasefire to allow for the safe distribution of vaccines to approximately 640,000 children and families.
Polio appeared in Gaza in June. Israel agreed to pause military operations against the Hamas terror group in the enclave to allow children to be vaccinated. The highly infectious disease can cause irreversible paralysis and death. The Israeli military’s Southern Command and the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories agency (COGAT) have been coordinating with WHO and UNICEF to conduct the effort.
The drive is being staggered across three geographic regions of Gaza over the first week of September. Experts claim that Hamas is expected to use the temporary ceasefire to move key personnel, valuable assets, and weapons.
“Countless people at UNICEF, WHO, and the Ministry of Health have sacrificed sleep and worked around the clock on this campaign. This kind of misinformation threatens to undo all of that hard work,” Khoudary said of Owda’s comments on the effort.
Owda, a Gaza-based Palestinian journalist and filmmaker, has posted a series of videos urging Palestinians not to give their children polio vaccines. She argued that the “genocidal” country of Israel cannot be trusted to vaccinate Palestinian children, citing the “horrific” conditions in Gaza since the start of the war. She also suggested that Israel “intentionally entered” Polio into Gaza.
“I don’t trust humanitarian institutions. I don’t trust the occupation,” Owda said.
Owda has also made headlines recently because she was nominated for her documentary series “It’s Bisan From Gaza and I’m Still Alive” in the 2024 Emmy Awards for News & Documentary in the category of outstanding hard news feature story: short form. In the docuseries, Owda reports from Gaza and documents the daily life of Palestinians during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. The docuseries was a collaboration with the digital media outlet AJ+ which is based in the US and is a subsidiary of the Qatari-owned media outlet Al Jazeera.
However, more than 150 entertainment industry leaders signed an open letter last month urging the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) to rescind Owda’s Emmy nomination because of her ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an internationally designated terrorist organization.
The letter came a few weeks after the pro-Israel, nonprofit entertainment industry organization Creative Community for Peace (CCFP) similarly called on NATAS to revoke the Emmy nomination due to Owda’s links to PFLP.
Owda’s connections to PFLP were exposed shortly after her Emmy nomination was announced in mid-July. She attended and spoke at PFLP rallies, hosted events honoring Palestinians fighting Israeli soldiers, and the PFLP referred to her in 2018 as a member of its Progressive Youth Union. She also regularly makes anti-Zionist comments on social media while reporting from Gaza about the Israel-Hamas war.
NATAS has refused to rescind her nomination, pointing to its history of celebrating “controversial” works.
The post Journalist Linked to Terror Group Faces Backlash for Peddling Anti-Vaccine Conspiracies Amid Gaza Polio Crisis first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
‘Pigs Off Campus’: Canadian Anti-Zionist Group Sends Chilling Message to Jews, Police
Severed pigs head staked on the gates leading to the residence of University of British Columbia president Benoit-Antoine Bacon. Photo: People’s University for Gaza/Instagram
A pro-Hamas group placed a shocking display targeting Jews and law enforcement on the grounds of the University of British Columbia (UBC) during the early hours of Tuesday morning.
“Pigs off campus,” said a large banner which People’s University for Gaza at UBC (PUG) tacked to the double gates leading to the private residence of university president Benoit-Antoine Bacon. Next to the banner, the group staked on the finials of the structure the severed head of a pig. Before leaving the area, they photographed their work and issued a statement explaining its motivation on Instagram.
“UBC will not know peace until we get Palestine back, piece by piece,” PUG said. “Pigs off campus is one of our demands. KKKanada and ‘Isra-hell’ are both shared violent settler colonial projects built on the removal of indigenous peoples from their land with the use of police forces.”
The statement went on to rail against Bacon for cooperating with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which it accused of murdering “indigenous youth,” to increase campus security. It also cited as a grievance the university’s hosting of students who had served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
“We remind him this morning this morning and every morning that these tactics do not intimidate us,” PUG continued. “To all those … starting their classes today, we ask you to take more action this year. Find your comrades, wear your keffiyehs everyday, learn beyond these classroom walls, and shut this campus down.”
The incident prompted a rebuke from Honest Reporting Canada (HRC), a nonprofit organization which promotes media fairness and accountability.
“Horrific Jew hated last night at University of British Columbia, as Jewish students were ‘welcomed’ with a ‘Pigs of campus’ sign and a severed pig’s head,” it said. “Hey UBC and UBC President [Bacon], what are you doing to protect your Jewish students on campus from this open Jew hatred?”
UBC has seen its share of antisemitic incidents before. In 2021, mezuzahs, prayer scrolls hung on the doors of Jewish residences, were twice stolen or vandalized. Earlier this year, pro-Hamas activists waged a campaign to expel Hillel from campus, arguing that doing so would advance the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israe. Other years saw the posting of neo-Nazi propaganda and swastika graffiti, and according to local media outlets, pro-Hamas students and faculty have perpetrated unrelenting abuse of anyone perceived as being a Jewish supporter of Israel, a problem that the university has been slow to address and which earlier this year led to the resignation of a family medicine professor who taught and conducted research there for three decades.
Other Canadian universities have allegedly failed to deter or punish anti-Zionist hatred.
In May, Jewish students attending Concordia University in Montreal told The Algemeiner that they have been left to fend for themselves when their anti-Zionist classmates resort to assault and harassment to make their point. No single incident, they said, evinced their alleged abandonment by school officials more than one on March 12 in which Jewish students were trapped in the school’s Hillel office while members of the anti-Zionist club Supporting Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR), concealing their faces with keffiyehs and surgical masks, banged on its windows and doors and stomped on the floor of the room above it.
When campus security officers arrived on the scene, they refused to punish the offenders and accused Jewish students of instigating the incident because they had filmed what transpired.
“We only filmed because they were harassing us, for evidence, and we didn’t feel safe,” Chana Leah Natanblut told The Algemeiner during an interview. “Security obviously told them to disperse and that they couldn’t act that way, but they didn’t say what would happen and it felt almost as if they had taken their side. Who’s to say they won’t do it again? What kind of message does it send to do nothing about it?”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post ‘Pigs Off Campus’: Canadian Anti-Zionist Group Sends Chilling Message to Jews, Police first appeared on Algemeiner.com.