On October 9, 2024, the Al Jazeera journalist Fadi Al-Wahidi was reporting on a Zionist massacre in the Jabalia refugee camp when an “Israeli” sniper shot him in the neck. The scene — Al-Wahidi collapsing on the sidewalk, his colleagues unable to reach him — was horrifyingly reminiscent of Shireen Abu-Akleh’s assassination by the IOF in 2022. Today, Fadi lies paralyzed in north Gaza, while the Occupation denies his requests for medical evacuation. His colleague and friend Anas Al-Sharif has described his condition as “a full-fledged humanitarian crime.” His mother is on hunger strike.

Since the beginning of the present genocide in Gaza, the Zionist entity has killed at least 192 Palestinian and Lebanese journalists, imprisoning and maiming many more. But they cannot kill the story. In Palestine and in Lebanon, the coverage continues. As Ismail Al-Ghoul said before he was martyred by the Zionist entity, “I have to live the same way the people live, to feel them, to be able to speak for them. This is what journalism is for.”

Meanwhile, a staggering majority of journalists in prestigious Western newsrooms — The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, BBC, CNN — continue to report the IOF’s lies while smearing the Palestinian resistance. By ignoring the calls to protect the brave, untiring, and relentlessly targeted journalists of Gaza, these craven hacks reveal themselves to be unworthy of the designation “colleague.” By embedding with the enemy, they have become the enemy.

No one knows the enemy better than its victims. After more than a year of livestreamed genocide, the witnesses refuse to be intimidated into silence or coerced into playing nice with the perpetrators. “Western media is responsible for my suffering,” writes Abubaker Abed, plain as day, in the latest issue of The New York War Crimes.

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Palestine Coverage

How to Make a Genocide Disappear

The Times’ coverage of Israel’s most recent war on Gaza may be its darkest hour. Here, we break it down in detail.
March 14, 2024

Since October 7th, Israel has waged an indiscriminate war against the people of Gaza, murdering nearly 30,000 children and adults and destroying hospitals, schools, mosques, factories, and homes. This most recent assault on Gaza, which Israel had already been holding under siege for nearly two decades, has forced most of its surviving population to flee south to the city of Rafah, where they face mass starvation, the rapid spread of disease and a looming invasion. Israel's military and political leaders have openly and repeatedly declared that genocidal intent is driving the war.

If you’ve been reading The New York Times, you’ve heard a different story. According to this story, Israel has responded to an unexplainable attack by Hamas, a shadowy Islamist terror group, with proportional force. A story in which attacks on hospitals and schools are regrettable but necessary evils. In The Times’ surrealist account, the Israeli military stands on the front lines of feminism, queer rights and democracy. Hamas is to blame for the deaths of 30,000 Palestinians. The United States is a reproachful ally, not a calculating and enabling accomplice. A handful of Israeli hostages are worthy of dozens of tearful stories and op-eds, while thousands of Palestinians are kidnapped and tortured without fanfare. Even Israel’s widespread, targeted murder of at least 125 journalists — a horror that the newspaper, with its much-touted reverence for journalism, might be expected to take particular heed of — is rendered invisible.

Every choice The Times makes has serious consequences. What language does the paper use, and how does its language change when referring to different groups? What stories does it focus on, and what stories does it marginalize? How does it frame conflicts? What context does it provide — and what context does it obscure?

This section offers some answers to these questions through detailed analyses of The Times’ coverage of Israel’s most recent assault on Gaza. The close reading, data-driven investigation, and style guide in this section provide a line-by-line look at the way the Times has attempted to make a genocide palatable to the public.