Is the New York Times losing its credibility on Israel-Palestine? | The Listening Post
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In December 2023, The New York Times published an explosive article - now widely discredited - that detailed Hamas’s agenda to weaponise rape and sexual violence on October 7. We reveal the controversies surrounding the article along with the broader issue of Western media outlets’ pro-Israeli/anti-Palestinian bias.
Lead contributors:
Ali Abunimah - Director, Electronic Intifada
Chris Hedges - Former Middle East Bureau Chief, The New York Times
Yumna Patel - Palestine News Director, Mondoweiss
On our radar:
After they won an award at the Berlinale film festival, the reaction to a speech by filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Basel Adra has become the latest example of Germany’s toxic debate on Gaza. Meenakshi Ravi reports.
For months, Israeli soldiers in Gaza have been documenting their own war crimes against Palestinians and sharing them on social media.
The Listening Post collected and reviewed hundreds of items. We asked three experts on human rights and torture to examine the material.
Featuring:
Basil Farraj - Assistant Professor, Birzeit University
Lisa Hajjar - Professor of Sociology, UC Santa Barbara
Sarah Leah Whitson - Executive Director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)
Transcript
0:04
we're almost five months into Israel's
0:07
war on Gaza and among the institutions
0:09
whose reputations have taken a beating
0:11
over their coverage the New York Times a
0:14
German Film Festival worthy of its own
0:17
award for the worst performance in tacid
0:20
support of an Israeli
0:22
genocide and why bother investigating
0:25
war crimes in Gaza when Israeli soldiers
0:28
are documenting those crimes
0:30
incriminating
0:36
themselves since Israel launched its
0:39
assault on Gaza in October many Western
0:42
news outlets have seen their credibility
0:44
take a hit Accused by audiences and
0:47
staff members alike of succumbing to
0:49
Israeli propaganda that includes one of
0:51
the world's best known Publications the
0:53
New York Times a notorious case in point
0:57
an investigation the times published
0:59
back in December which alleged that
1:01
Hamas deliberately weaponized rape and
1:03
sexual violence on October 7th those
1:06
claims have since been unsubstantiated
1:09
if not disproven revealing the times's
1:12
pro-israeli anti-palestinian bias and
1:15
leaving the papers Newsroom Riven by
1:17
descent but for the times's critics
1:19
including some of its former reporters
1:22
the article is a mere symptom of an
1:24
age-old problem a persistent double
1:26
standard in the stories the paper deems
1:28
fit to print on Israel and Palestine and
1:32
those it does
1:36
not the role of the New York Times is
1:39
not defined by its circulation it's
1:42
defined by the fact that it sets the
1:44
agenda that's number one number two most
1:49
newspapers do not have foreign bureaus
1:51
and so they will run the times foreign
1:54
coverage so that's the power of the
1:57
times it sets the
1:58
agenda starting with something that is
2:01
definitely not breaking news the
2:04
American newspaper of record the New
2:06
York Times has a track record of
2:09
supporting Israel what is new are the
2:11
stakes Israel is on trial for genocide
2:15
at the international court of justice
2:17
core to its propaganda effort has been
2:19
framing hamas's attacks on October 7th
2:22
as extraordinarily sadistic like
2:25
something out of the Isis Playbook the
2:27
wholesale
2:28
Massacre mutilation rape and Abduction
2:33
of as many citizens as the terrorists
2:35
could find enter the times and this
2:38
story published in late December it
2:40
accused Palestinian militants of
2:42
weaponizing rape and sexual violence
2:45
systematically unleashing it on Israeli
2:48
women and men a lurid allegation a
2:52
sensational story but one that the
2:54
evidence simply fails to support when
2:57
the New York Times said we've done a TW
3:00
Monon long investigation we interviewed
3:04
150 people and we found a broad pattern
3:09
of sexual violence on October 7th that
3:12
for a lot of people just uh closed the
3:16
case if the New York Times is saying it
3:19
then it must be true I even had friends
3:22
who know how much Israel misrepresents
3:26
things and lies who said Ali now surely
3:30
you have to give some Credence to what
3:32
it's saying but it's a case of
3:34
journalistic fraud because it just
3:37
doesn't deliver the goods the principal
3:40
criticism lies within the main claim
3:43
which is that not only did sexual
3:46
assault and occasions of rape occur but
3:49
that they were used systematically since
3:52
that report has been published major
3:54
flaws have emerged not just um in the
3:58
contents itself but also when it comes
4:00
to the actual journalists and authors
4:02
behind the
4:04
report alternative US news outlets
4:07
subscriber funded ones like movice
4:10
electronic inada and the grey Zone went
4:13
to work debunking the times's story they
4:16
noted the article contained zero direct
4:19
testimony from victims that the alleged
4:21
eyewitnesses the paper quoted were
4:23
either Anonymous or of dubious
4:26
credibility that the family of a woman
4:28
killed on October 7th disputed the
4:31
times's assertion that she had been
4:33
raped another of the times's sources
4:35
accused the reporters of pressuring them
4:38
to speak saying it was important for
4:41
Israel's PR effort one of the reporters
4:43
involved andat Schwarz had never filed a
4:46
news story before October 7th she is a
4:50
filmmaker whose Wikipedia page said she
4:52
had worked for Israeli intelligence had
4:55
the times done its homework its editors
4:57
would have known that schwarz's social
5:00
media accounts revealed she had liked
5:02
some disturbing posts including one
5:05
advocating turning Gaza into a
5:07
slaughterous a post South Africa
5:09
included in its case against Israel at
5:12
the icj not that the story was shortz's
5:16
idea as she explained to Israeli Army
5:28
Radio
5:33
it was an odd way for such a report to
5:35
come together still the times published
5:38
it and showcased it imagine it was the
5:40
other way around any Palestinian who
5:43
Whispers something that is considered
5:46
Politically Incorrect is out in a
5:49
[Music]
5:52
second and yet you have this person who
5:55
worked for the Israeli intelligence who
5:57
wasn't a journalist and who liked on
6:00
social media these blood curdling calls
6:04
for the decimation of Palestinians in
6:07
Gaza and that's the person you hire to
6:10
report on your story disparity between
6:13
standards is staggering the New York
6:16
Times article had an enormous impact
6:18
I've seen it cited
6:20
repeatedly uh even by some human rights
6:24
organizations but I have to say I think
6:27
that it had less influence than it might
6:31
have had if Independent Media Outlets
6:36
had not exposed the flaws in it the New
6:39
York Times is used to getting away with
6:42
this and this time they
6:44
didn't critics of that Times report
6:46
included people on the inside the papers
6:49
podcast the daily planned to produce a
6:52
version of the story but dropped the
6:54
project following descent in The
6:56
Newsroom over concerns about the
6:58
journalism roughly 6 weeks later when un
7:01
officials highlighted quote unquote
7:03
credible allegations that Israelis had
7:06
raped or sexually assaulted Palestinians
7:09
they have imprisoned including children
7:11
that times failed to cover the story
7:14
then there is the writing the paper has
7:16
published by Thomas fredman a former
7:19
Jerusalem bureau chief turned columnist
7:21
fredman infamously backed the 2003
7:25
us-led invasion of Iraq that was based
7:27
on lies and did so in the most offensive
7:31
Cavalier way and what they needed to see
7:33
was American boys and girls going house
7:36
to house from busra to Baghdad and
7:40
basically saying well suck on this okay
7:45
this time around fredman concocted a
7:48
column comparing the Middle East to an
7:50
animal kingdom with America cast as an
7:53
old lion Iranians as wasps and Hamas as
7:57
some kind of spider when he Likens the
8:01
Palestinians and various other players
8:04
in the region to animals it's
8:07
horrifyingly
8:09
offensive at a time when the Israelis
8:12
are saying that the Palestinians in Gaza
8:16
are human animals and even more
8:18
offensive than that is treating a
8:21
situation like this as some kind of
8:24
fable or Barnyard story rather than
8:29
actually understanding the reality of
8:31
the Palestinians that this is an
8:33
oppressed people this is an occupied
8:36
people it's classic
8:39
colonialism classic uh racism and
8:44
wherever you look in a settler Colonial
8:46
project the British in Kenya or India uh
8:49
they spoke in the same language and they
8:51
used overwhelming Force to subdue a
8:55
population that they considered less
8:57
than human and only capable of
9:00
understanding violence fredman in the
9:03
Iraq War was the famous one who said we
9:05
hit Iraq because we could Thomas fredman
9:09
is one of the spokes people for that
9:12
Twisted ideology and that's why he does
9:15
as well as he does the New York Times is
9:18
not alone in failing its American
9:20
audience on the Gaza story there was the
9:23
Wall Street Journal report on Israel's
9:25
allegation that unra the relief agency
9:27
so many Palestinian depend on had been
9:30
infiltrated by Hamas the paper swallowed
9:34
Israel's unsubstantiated side of that
9:36
story hookline and sinker there's CNN
9:40
and the fake news beheaded babies
9:42
narrative babies and toddlers were found
9:45
with their heads
9:47
decapitated neither CNN nor the journal
9:50
however are considered America's news
9:52
Outlet of record the way the times is
9:55
but should it be despite some worthwhile
9:58
inves tigations since October 7th like
10:01
this one showing the destruction caused
10:03
by 2,000lb Israeli bombs that does not
10:07
begin to address an imbalance that goes
10:10
back decades the unmistakable pro-israel
10:13
bias coming out of the times's Jerusalem
10:16
Bureau where Chris Hedges worked in the
10:18
early
10:19
2000s you have had more than one case
10:23
where the reporter assigned to Jerusalem
10:26
Ethan Broner for example his children
10:28
are serving in the IDF I mean imagine
10:30
that if a
10:32
Palestinian reporter covering Gaza his
10:35
kids were in an armed wing of any
10:37
Palestinian faction so I sick of the
10:42
one-sided coverage used vacation time to
10:46
go to Han Unis and write a magazine
10:49
piece for Harpers called a Gaza diary
10:52
that was
10:53
published and I was informed that I
10:55
would never report again from the Middle
10:57
East for the New York Times times I'm an
10:59
Arabic speaker by the way they don't
11:01
have a lot so you pay a heavy price if
11:04
you attempt to
11:07
report we requested interviews with
11:09
numerous reporters at the times and a
11:12
spokesperson there all of them declined
11:14
instead the paper sent this statement we
11:17
remain confident in the accuracy of our
11:20
reporting and stand by the team's
11:23
investigation which was rigorously
11:25
sourced and edited we could have asked
11:28
about the papers famous motto the one
11:31
created in
11:32
1897 that still adorns its Mast head
11:35
today and perhaps suggested an edit
11:39
something like all the News That's fit
11:41
to print and some that clearly
11:46
isn't Germany is under a long shadow of
11:49
censorship when it comes to Gaza a
11:51
situation that is so Grim it can be
11:54
comedic at times the latest example came
11:57
at a film festival in Berlin where an
11:59
Israeli and a Palestinian teamed up to
12:01
win an award Mino shiravi is here with
12:04
more the Berlin Alla is one of the
12:07
so-called Big Five film festivals
12:09
worldwide and is a major cultural
12:11
institution in Germany it was already
12:13
facing criticism for its silence on the
12:15
genocide in Gaza several filmmakers
12:17
pulled out in protest and Festival
12:19
workers demanded the organizers call for
12:21
a ceasefire it all came to a head when
12:24
no other land a film about the ethnic
12:26
cleansing and settling of Palestinian
12:28
villages in the West Bank won the award
12:31
for best documentary the film was
12:33
co-directed by Palestinian activist
12:35
basil Adra and Israeli filmmaker yal
12:38
Abraham I am Israeli basis
12:40
Palestinian
12:42
and in two days we will go back to a
12:45
land where we are not
12:47
equal I am living under a civilian law
12:50
and Basel is under military law this
12:53
situation of apartheid between us this
12:56
inequality it has to end the festival
12:59
quickly distanced itself from Abraham's
13:01
remarks which were hardly controversial
13:03
the German press and politicians
13:05
criticized Abraham a Jewish Israeli
13:07
calling his statement anti-semitic
13:10
Berlin's mayor said the words were
13:11
intolerable the country's culture
13:13
Minister who was criticized for
13:15
applauding the filmmakers then clarified
13:17
she was clapping only for Abraham all in
13:20
all a ridiculous example of the toxic
13:22
climate in Germany for any discussion
13:24
about the war in Gaza a berlin-based
13:26
coalition of arts and culture workers
13:28
called it an everpresent atmosphere of
13:31
fear self-censorship and suspicion on
13:34
social media and in the workplace in
13:36
institutions and on the street Israeli
13:39
media went all in on the story as well
13:41
threats against the makers of no other
13:43
land have intensified and yal Abraham
13:45
who says his family in Israel has been
13:47
targeted by right-wing mobs says he's
13:50
now too afraid to go back home thanks
13:52
MAA after hamas's attacks on October 7th
13:56
Israeli leaders spoke openly about the
13:58
violation of Gaza they said there were
14:01
no Innocents there called Palestinians
14:03
animals with no right to exist they were
14:06
inciting a genocide a message that was
14:09
clearly heard on the battlefield because
14:11
in one video after another Israeli
soldiers have recorded their own war
crimes celebrating as they looted homes
destroyed houses or set them on fire
14:22
filming as they mocked humiliated and
14:25
assaulted Palestinian captives it is a
14:27
sign of the punity they think they have
14:30
that so much of that material has been
14:32
brazenly posted on social media now in a
14:36
way Palestinians have seen this kind of
14:38
thing before going back to 1948 but
14:41
never have the images the videos been
14:43
this widespread explicit and barbaric
14:47
the listening post has collected some of
14:49
that material and asked three experts on
14:51
human rights and torture to assess it
14:53
first a viewer warning many of the
14:56
images in this report are difficult to
14:58
take
15:05
[Music]
15:27
in
15:53
there has been a remarkable number of
15:57
videos posted by Israeli soldiers on
16:00
social media depicting themselves
16:03
pillaging property mocking the death and
16:07
destruction that they are causing and uh
16:10
most egregiously uh torturing
16:13
humiliating and mocking detained
16:16
Palestinian Prisoners the images of M arrests of
16:29
torture of Palestinians of numbering
16:31
their bodies which is reminiscent of
16:33
images all of us have seen from
16:34
Guantanamo and Abu these images are
16:37
Testament to what Palestinians have long
16:39
been saying which is that this this
16:41
settler Colonial regime is utterly
16:43
violent they show the nature through
16:45
which this genocide is unfolding in the
16:48
Gaza Strip they also show the extreme
16:50
brutality and torture violence utter
16:53
disregard of human life transforming
16:56
these violent conducts into a spectacle
16:58
to beew viewed and watched on social
17:00
media posts they lack specific
17:03
intelligence about who actually might be
17:06
Hamas and because they lack intelligence
17:09
they therefore are rounding up everyone
17:11
in order to hope to extract information
17:14
through
17:15
interrogation the fact that they've been
17:17
stripped to their underwear is you know
17:20
a manifestation of cruel inhumane and
17:23
degrading treatment which is also
17:25
illegal in addition to torture the fact
17:27
that they're photographing these things
17:30
it's like trophy
17:31
shots what this depicts I think very
17:34
vividly is dehumanization and torture
17:38
you know the idea that somebody can be
17:40
just like their body is just being
17:42
attacked you know in their most
17:44
vulnerable position his hands are bound
17:46
behind his back he's lying face down
17:49
soldiers stepping on his face in a sense
17:51
it
17:52
epitomizes torture in general
17:55
purposefully harming someone who's in
17:58
custody that custodial relationship is a
18:01
particularly vulnerable one where you
18:03
know the custodians have all the power
18:05
and the Prisoner who is in this case not
18:08
only on the ground and tied up but
18:09
completely powerless the images are
18:12
showing us and telling us how Central
18:14
imprisonment or carceral practices are
18:17
to this settler Colonial regime the
18:19
torture humilation uh and degrading
18:22
conduct against Palestinians is not
18:24
simply restricted to the Gaza Strip
18:27
there are also images and videos that
18:28
have been circulating from the West Bank
18:31
since October 7th over 7,000
18:34
Palestinians have been detained which is
18:36
a number unheard of over the past
18:40
[Music]
18:54
decade Israeli soldiers have quite
18:57
remarkably
18:58
taken to converting their massive really
19:04
unprecedented destruction of Palestinian
19:07
homes hospitals mosques universities
19:10
churches schools into entertainment
19:17
[Music]
19:27
videos
19:30
there's one uh video where Israeli
19:32
soldiers are showing some residential
19:35
homes that they've set on fire and
19:38
attached a
19:40
[Music]
19:43
song
19:46
Fire there have been uh many many images
19:49
of uh uh Israeli soldiers who've
19:53
ransacked Palestinian homes and
19:55
confiscated their personal Goods uh one
19:58
in particular is the red neglige that uh
20:01
appears to be seen in so many Israeli
20:04
videos where Israeli soldiers are
20:07
mocking and
20:09
advertising their very deliberate
20:11
intrusion of the home of a Palestinian
20:14
woman the confiscation of her most
20:18
intimate apparel uh and flaunting that
20:21
in a way that's definitely intended to
20:24
be provocative and humiliating the video
20:28
further reinforce a discourse that is
20:31
coming out of every sector of the
20:33
Israeli official Machinery where all
20:36
Palestinians are the
20:40
enemy many officials have said they
20:43
deserve to be eliminated and you see it
20:45
manifested in that kind of Jah deiv you
20:49
know that soldiers are expressing as
20:52
they destroy uh Palestinian homes and
20:55
there is a consumption of this kind of
20:57
image that kind of fortifies the anger
21:00
the hatred the anti-palestinian
21:02
sentiment and the kind of complete
21:04
disregard of the humanity of Palestinian
21:06
civilians there is such a high level of
21:09
confidence among these IDF soldiers that
21:11
they can do whatever they want to say to
21:13
the whole world look at what we're doing
21:16
to Palestinians in Gaza look at how we
21:19
are brutalizing detainees look at how
21:23
we're humiliating every single man woman
21:26
and child and we destroy their homes set
21:30
fire to them uh and make fun of it uh
21:33
and they are provoking and challenging
21:36
the whole world uh to say we can do this
21:39
we can get away with it and no one in
21:42
the world can stop us no isra has found
21:45
themselves sanctioned uh by the
21:47
International Community by countries
21:49
that have these tools which again has
21:52
only reinforced the belief of Israeli
21:55
soldiers that they are immune that they
21:58
are Exempted from uh uh complying with
22:01
International laws from basic human
22:03
rights laws uh that they are above the
22:07
[Music]
22:26
law
22:30
since the beginning of this genocidal
22:32
War reservists have been called up and
22:35
who are the reservists they are the
22:38
entire proportion of the Israeli Society
22:40
there are teachers professors students
22:43
doctors Medics artists writers
22:46
journalists these images they are not
22:49
only directed to a small audience they
22:52
are directed to a broad
22:56
audience there's a a long practiced
22:59
history of racializing and dehumanizing
23:01
Palestinians these images and these
23:03
videos entirely show how Israeli
23:06
violence is also not only directed
23:09
towards Palestinian livelihood but also
23:11
their material being so their houses
23:13
their their belongings eliminating
23:15
Palestinian existence history has taught
23:18
us that the dehumanization of subjects
23:21
is essential to the infliction of
23:22
violence I think Israel has perfected
23:26
this in discourse and in practice ice
23:28
but this is not new it dates back to the
23:31
beginning of this state through which
23:33
Palestinians were expelled degraded
23:35
humiliated killed and effectively
23:38
forcibly
23:46
disappeared and finally this past week
23:48
more than 50 International broadcast
23:51
journalists signed a letter calling for
23:53
free and unfettered access to Gaza the
23:56
letter was addressed to the states
23:58
responsible for cutting off the strip
24:00
from the outside world Israel and Egypt
24:03
since October 7th only a few foreign
24:05
reporters have made it into Gaza mostly
24:07
those embedded with the Israeli military
24:09
and they were not allowed to speak with
24:11
Palestinians which left us to rely on
24:14
the courageous work of local journalists
24:16
an unprecedented number of whom have
24:18
paid with their lives it is long past
24:21
time that Israel and Egypt let
24:23
journalists in the awful scenes this
24:26
past week in Gaza City the Israeli
24:28
military's Massacre of more than a 100
24:31
Palestinians who were lining up for food
24:33
simply underlines how important that
24:36
journalistic access can be we'll see you
24:38
next time here at the listening
24:50
post
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