Abraham Foxman, the director emeritus of the Anti-Defamation League, tweeted on May 28 that he is canceling his New York Times subscription because the paper printed a “blood libel” on their front page.
The May 28 print edition of the Times featured several photos of children in the Gaza Strip who were killed in the recent Israel-Hamas conflict, as well as two children in Israel who died. The headline read: “They Were Just Children.” The story itself, which was published online on May 26, highlights the at least 67 dead Gazan children and the two Israeli children. “Israel blames Hamas for the high civilian death toll in Gaza because the group fires rockets and conducts military operations from civilian areas,” the article stated. “Israel’s critics cite the death toll as evidence that Israel’s strikes were indiscriminate and disproportionate.”
It also states that a couple of the Gaza children “may have been killed when Palestinian militants fired a rocket at Israel that fell short.”
https://twitter.com/evanchill/status/1398324699306893315?s=20
“I am cancelling my subscription to NYTimes,” Foxman tweeted. “I grew up in America on the NYT—I delivered the NYT to my classmates—I learned civics—democracy and all the news ‘fit to print’ for 65 years but no more. Today’s blood libel of Israel and the Jewish people on the front page is enough.”
I am cancelling my subscription to NYTimes. I grew up in America on the NYT- I delivered the NYT to my classmates- I learned civics- democracy and all the news”fit to print” for 65 years but no more. Today’s blood libel of Israel and the Jewish people on the front page is enough
— Abraham Foxman (@FoxmanAbraham) May 28, 2021
Newsweek Deputy Opinion Editor Batya Ungar-Sargon replied to Foxman, “Me too.”
me too
— Batya Ungar-Sargon (@bungarsargon) May 28, 2021
Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action Agenda at the Simon Wiesenthal Center Rabbi Abraham Cooper told the Journal that he too is canceling his subscription to The New York Times, saying that the front page is “libelous against the Jewish state and that they do it amidst a tsunami of antisemitic attacks by pro-Hamas forces across the United States… it’s beyond the pale.” He added that the Times has gone from “being the paper of record for the United States of America – the world’s greatest democracy – to becoming the newspaper of record for Hamas.”
Others on Twitter defended the Times.
“Blood libel is about the accusation that Jews kill Christian children for ritual purposes, not about how a sovereign state acts in war,” Rabbi Jill Jacobs, executive director of Tr’uah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights tweeted in response to Foxman. “It is not antisemitic to show pictures of Palestinian—and Israeli btw—children killed in the war, both by Israel & by Hamas.”
Blood libel is about the accusation that Jews kill Christian children for ritual purposes, not about how a sovereign state acts in war. It is not antisemitic to show pictures of Palestinian–and Israeli btw–children killed in the war, both by Israel & by Hamas.
— Rabbi Jill Jacobs (@rabbijilljacobs) May 28, 2021
Palestinian writer Yousef Munayyer called Foxman’s tweet “a good example of how antisemitism smears are used to silence dissent and police the discourse around Palestine” and added in a subsequent tweet, “For years Palestinians have been reduced to nameless, faceless statistics in the reporting about their killings at the hands of the Israeli military. If the minute they are humanized, even in the simplest way, you start screaming antisemitism then something is wrong with you.”
A good example of how antisemitism smears are used to silence dissent and police the discourse around Palestine. The NYT reported on Israeli and Palestinian kids who were killed in the last couple weeks and this act of basic reporting is called "blood libel" https://t.co/owIR5Ov8OQ
— Yousef Munayyer (@YousefMunayyer) May 28, 2021
For years Palestinians have been reduced to nameless, faceless statistics in the reporting about their killings at the hands of the Israeli military. If the minute they are humanized, even in the simplest way, you start screaming antisemitism then something is wrong with you.
— Yousef Munayyer (@YousefMunayyer) May 28, 2021
The Times did not respond to the Journal’s request for comment.
The Times was criticized for other coverage of the recent Israel-Hamas conflict earlier this week. Ben Shapiro tweeted that for the main image of an op-ed by a Palestinian writer, the Times used a map of Israel that is “so bad that MSNBC, which used the image in 2015, had to retract it and admit it was factually incorrect.” New York Times Deputy Opinion Editor Patrick Healy said in a statement that the map helped “illustrate [the author’s] arguments.”
NYT printed a map that is completely incorrect in every factual respect. It's so bad that MSNBC, which used the image in 2015, had to retract it and admit it was factually incorrect. Just the NYT casually pushing the destruction of the state of Israel, as per usual. https://t.co/IpJbtRNkz8
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) May 26, 2021
The deputy editor of the @nytimes opinion page @patrickhealynyt has responded to objections regarding the fake maps his page ran yesterday. This is a radically inadequate explanation, in at least two ways, which I will explain below. pic.twitter.com/x4598M5WJ0
— Shany Mor שני מור شني مور (@ShMMor) May 27, 2021
“It’s a phony map,” Cooper told the Journal. “Anybody with a 12th grade education would know it was called the Palestinian Mandate, and the Palestinian Post was talking to the Palestinians. You know who they were? Jews!”
Gilead Ini, senior research for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), accused the Times of burying “readers in an avalanche of anti-Israel Guest Essays.”
The New York Times buries readers in an avalanche of anti-Israel Guest Essays.
Of the nine, two call for an end to Israel. One says war crimes against Israelis are legitimate. Others just make stuff up. Mostly, they curate lack of empathy for Israelis.https://t.co/tut8rl53E4
— Gilead Ini (@GileadIni) May 28, 2021
