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Message
from the Managing Editor
Dear Friends,
Wishing you much health and success from the Holy Land.
This past quarter was, tragically, defined by the US-designated terror group Hamas’ initiation of yet another full-blown conflict against the Jewish state. During an 11-day period in May, HonestReporting operated on another battlefield: namely, by relentlessly attacking the mass media’s anti-Israel disinformation campaign.
In this respect, we constantly challenged journalists when they failed to report the facts accurately and, from May 10-21, we published 14 long-form news critiques and 10 original videos. Our content garnered hundreds of thousands of views and was shared by online influencers. Our materials were republished or cited in, among many other outlets, Newsweek, The Jerusalem Post, The Times of Israel and The Algemeiner. Shortly after the ceasefire, HonestReporting made global waves by exposing Tala Halawa, a BBC journalist who during the 2014 war against Hamas tweeted that Israel is “more #Nazi than #Hitler,” adding, “#HitlerWasRight.” Our investigative work went viral and the story was covered by dozens of international publications. In response to our campaign, the BBC opened an investigation that ultimately led to Halawa being fired.
As a follow-up, we launched an initiative to get the long-buried Balen Report on the BBC‘s alleged anti-Israel bias published. Prior to that our editorial team helped draw media attention to the acquittal by France’s highest appeals court of Kobili Traoré, who admitted to the antisemitic murder of Sarah Halimi, a Jewish woman in her sixties. During Q2, we also raised questions about the legality of US President Joe Biden’s resumption of financial assistance to the Palestinians and foremost to the UNRWA.
In June, we reported on the seizure by the US government of PressTV.com, one of Iran’s English-language state-run news websites. The impact was made stark when the deputy CEO of the propaganda channel threatened us on social media.
Indeed, we continue to go from strength to strength, expanding our staff and our scope and sphere of influence. To quantify, consider this: From July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021, HonestReporting’s work was mentioned 46.5K across all platforms compared to just under 6K in the preceding 12-month period.
But none of this would be possible without your ongoing support for our cause.
We thank you all and look forward to many more amazing achievements.
Sincerely,
Charles Bybelezer
- Notable Successes
France’s highest court ruled that that a man who savagely attacked and killed his Jewish neighbor was not criminally responsible as he had smoked a large amount of marijuana. However, virtually the entire media initially elected to turn a blind eye to this grave injustice, with the result being zero mainstream coverage. We held them accountable, and the story was covered soon thereafter.
UNRWA Deputy Commissioner Leni Stenseth thanked Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in June for his “positivity and desire to continue cooperation,” HonestReporting first reported. The New York Post picked up on our scoop and included a link to our article in an editorial.
A journalist with a history of antisemitic social media posts is no longer employed by the BBC, after HonestReporting prompted the corporation to launch an investigation. In May, HonestReporting exposed Halawa, leading to reports in well-known media outlets including The Daily Telegraph, Fox News, The Daily Mail, The Spectator, and The Independent.
By portraying Israel as being in full control of the Temple Mount, NYT readers were initially misinformed. HonestReporting contacted the outlet to point out that, in fact, it is the Islamic Waqf that controls and manages the Islamic sites on and around the Temple Mount, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
In June, we reported that the US Department of Justice seized 33 websites operated by the Iranian Islamic Radio and Television Union. Included in the seizure order were PressTV.com, one of Tehran’s English-language mouthpieces. The impact was made stark when the Deputy CEO of the propaganda channel, Ahmad Noroozi, threatened us on social media.
HonestReporting dug deeper into the possible reasons why Vice continues to pump out slanted media coverage about Israel. We analyzed Twitter accounts of Vice journalists, freelancers and editorial staff, who reported on the recent conflict between the Jewish state and Gaza-based terror groups. What we uncovered was shocking.
Israel-Hamas Conflict
HonestReporting Steps Up During 'Operation Guardian of the Walls'
ARTICLES
During the conflict with Hamas, the Israel Defense Forces targeted a building in the Gaza Strip that housed the local offices of international media outlets such as Associated Press and Al Jazeera. It is also from where the IDF said that members of Hamas’ intelligence unit had been operating.
Thousands of Muslim worshippers chanted slogans such as “Ya Qassam, Ya Habib/Bomb, bomb, Tel Aviv,” as rioting broke out on the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site and also location of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The media failed to report that the violence was pre-palnned, with videos of ensuing clashes showing Arabs using fireworks as weapons, forcing Israeli border police to protect themselves.
As thousands of rockets rained down on Israel , another disturbing development got less attention in the mainstream media. For days on end, Arab Israelis carried out what were described as “pogroms” in Lod, Acre, Jaffa, Haifa and other so-called mixed communities.
Gaza Strip-based terrorist groups, led by Hamas, caused a spike in anti-Jewish violence around the world. Omitted from the media’s reporting is that the Hamas Charter outlines its ideological commitment to quite literally killing every Jew on Earth.
A NYT video lambasted the Jewish state while letting Hamas — “the group that governs Gaza” — off the hook. The “visual investigation” focuses almost entirely on Israel’s alleged misdeeds while ignoring the fact that Hamas deliberately places Palestinians in harm’s way. Meanwhile, the NYT‘s working theory was not only biased but also produced no clear-cut conclusions.
The New York Times, The Washington Post, BBC, CNN and other major media outlets produced misleading headlines about the conflict, many of which totally ignored Palestinian terrorism. We set the record straight.
VIDEOS
The streets of Jerusalem for weeks were plagued by violence. News reports, however, downplayed Palestinian attacks on Jews. HonestReporting helped expose the truth.
Amid the conflict, the Jewish state reopened one of the country’s crossings with the Gaza Strip to allow for the transfer of humanitarian aid. The media for the most part ignored Jerusalem’s approval of the transfer of medical equipment and other supplies for civilians in the Palestinian coastal enclave.
IN THE MEDIA
Thousands of rockets were launched from Gaza into Israel after Hamas used mass rioting by Palestinians in Jerusalem as a pretext for escalation. Daniel Pomerantz, CEO of HonestReporting, took on Hanan Jarrar, Palestinian Ambassador to South Africa, on Newzroom Afrika’s AM report.
As Israel continued to defend itself against incoming rockets fired from the Gaza Strip, HonestReporting was invited to speak on Israel’s Channel 20 about how our organization has a real impact on both journalists as well as the formulation of news itself.
HonestReporting CEO Daniel Pomerantz explained on the Knesset Channel not only about how we defend Israel in the press and hold the media to account, but also about the importance of documenting what’s really happening in order to stop false claims against the Jewish state.
- CRITIQUES
The Palestinian Authority (PA) canceled an agreement with Israel that would have supplied up to 1.4 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to people in the West Bank and Gaza. Yet, media failed to question the Palestinian leadership’s reasons for rejecting the inoculations, which might have saved lives.
Fareed Zakaria asserted on CNN that during former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s 15 years in office, he took “a much harder line position, essentially killing the two-state solution.” But neither the Israeli government’s repeated good-faith efforts to jump start the peace process nor the Palestinian leadership’s incessant intransigence were widely reported.
Over the two centuries since The Guardian was first published, it has made some frankly awful mistakes. From featuring poisonous cartoons dripping with antisemitic imagery to obstinately insisting on referring to Tel Aviv as Israel’s capital. None of those has been deemed its “worst errors of judgment” but supporting Israel’s creation was.
- INTERNS
Joshua Beylinson
Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Joshua Beylinson is a Political Science student at the University of Pittsburgh. He is a Summer 2021 intern at HonestReporting.
Incendiary Balloons: Hamas’ Explosive Terror Tactic Against Israel
Outside of the Gaza Strip, a balloon symbolizes childhood and freedom. However, for Israelis who live near the coastal enclave, seeing a balloon floating in the sky evokes images of Hamas, the US-designated terrorist group that rules the Palestinian territory.
Lexie Herman
Originally from Kansas City, Lexie Herman is a Communications and Political Science student at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. She is a Summer 2021 intern at HonestReporting.
Viewing Pleasure: Israeli TV Series Captivating Audiences Worldwide
With the ever-increasing popularity of streaming platforms, television shows first produced outside the United States have become a hot commodity. Within the international entertainment industry, Israeli TV series in particular have rapidly gained traction.
Alex Papalcure
Alexandra Papalcure is from Long Island, New York, studying International Political Economy and Cultural Anthropology at Syracuse University.
HonestReporting is revamping its Instagram account, an initiative taken on by Alex Papalcure. The goal is to create a platform where factual information is spread about Israel in order to combat the bias and inaccuracies that circulate on the platform.
- Petitions
The White House announced plans to resume US financial assistance to the Palestinians in an amount expected to be over $300M. Yet, it is was not immediately clear exactly where this money would go, which raised unanswered questions regarding whether it would violate the Taylor Force Act and other US anti-terrorism laws?
The BBC in 2004 commissioned a report to investigate allegations that its coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian issue was biased. More than 15 years later, the findings have not been released to the public that funds the organization.
- Videos
The US-designated terrorist organization Hamas thanked Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for supporting the “just rights of the Palestinian people.” Last week, Omar grouped the US and Israel together with the Taliban and Hamas, asserting that all sides have committed “unthinkable atrocities.”
Human Rights Watch put disaffected and oppressed peoples across the globe in a precarious position by manipulating the definition of apartheid. HRW’s “definition” is so broad that if you applied it fairly and rigorously then almost every person in every nation would be guilty of it, in one way or another.
Another journalistic faux pas: CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour failed to properly characterize Marwan Barghouti, the Palestinian viewed by many as the mastermind behind the Second Intifada. In a segment of her show, she described the arch-terrorist as a “Palestinian activist and leader” who’s in jail inside Israel.
- Stats
Social Media stats for March 1 → June 30, 2021
- Quarterly Facebook stats
1.1M
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- Quarterly Twitter stats
