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- The Future Has Arrived: In Conversation With Gil Hoffman
- Notable Successes
Following revelations by HonestReporting, YouTube took action after BBC contributor Abdel Bari Atwan had praised a terror attack in Tel Aviv on his personal YouTube channel. In a now-removed video initially published on April 8, the British-Palestinian journalist called the terrorist that killed three Israelis a “hero.”
This was far from the first time that the social media giant has been criticized for its failure to adequately act against anti-Jewish hate posted on its platform.
Mehdi Eliefifi is a US-based political analyst and commentator who has been invited to appear on numerous channels including BBC Arabic, i24 News and France24.
He also holds some very disturbing views.
As revealed by HonestReporting, Eliefifi’s social media accounts show him praising Palestinian terrorist and commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, Zakaria Zubeidi, who was imprisoned for overseeing attacks against Israelis during the Second Intifada, including a suicide bombing that killed an Israeli woman.
- Groundbreaking HonestReporting Study
Jews are victims of more hate crimes per capita than all other groups in the United States, as tracked by the FBI. However, anti-Jewish hate crimes receive disproportionately little news coverage, by a disturbingly large margin.
Our research was carried out using professional media intelligence tracking software and the FBI Hate Crime Statistics database.
We found that while Jews are one of the smallest minority groups in the US, they have been the targets of the most hate crimes per capita during the period 2018-2020. By contrast, hate crimes against Muslims received the most news coverage of any group by a large margin.
- Articles
Gidon Ben-Zvi
Senior Editor
Israel’s attempt to stem the terrorist tide in April was depicted by media as part of a ‘cycle of violence.’ Although framing Palestinian attacks against civilians around such a metaphor might be evocative, it fails to accurately describe events as they actually transpired.
While the rising amount of displaced people around the world is regularly used by news organizations to rekindle the story of Palestinian “refugees,” the expulsion of Jews from Arab and Islamic lands has generated virtually no media coverage.
Akiva Van Koningsveld
Editor
News organizations repeated the same mistakes they had made ahead of the May 2021 Hamas-initiated conflict with Israel by failing to connect the dots between Palestinian violence and Iran’s destabilizing efforts in the region.
When Amnesty International issued its report, charging Israel with maintaining a “cruel system of apartheid,” the media parroted the NGO’s assertions.
Yet these same outlets buried an independent inquiry concluding that Amnesty’s UK branch has an “institutional racism” problem.
Rachel O'Donoghue
Senior Editor
CNN in April concluded that that the killing of Al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was the result of her having been “targeted” by Israeli security forces.
But by uncritically publishing the outlandish claims of individuals with an anti-Israel ax to grind, the network effectively targeted the Jewish state for character assassination.
The New York Times’ latest addition to its Jerusalem office has repeatedly posted comments online that undermine her ability to report objectively on matters pertaining to the Jewish state.
This new hire connects with the Gray Lady’s reputation for biased reporting when it comes to Israeli affairs.
Chaim Lax
Editor
Many times, both journalists and social media influencers will share famous quotes about Israel that are either outright fabrications or deceptive misquotes.
However, by the time the truth about these quotes is revealed, they have already been shared thousands of times and viewed by hundreds of thousands of people.
As the number of hate crimes targeting Jewish people around the globe soars, an area that is receiving less attention is the existence of anti-Jewish stereotyping in the modern music industry.
Yet Judeophobia has crept into both music lyrics and live concerts, with musicians abusing their fame to spread anti-Jewish conspiracies.
- Videos
Amid a terror wave, the Palestinian Authority’s envoy to the UK appeared on CNN to discuss imposing sanctions on the Jewish state.
Husam Zomlot was previously accused of denying the Holocaust and of defending the PA’s policy of paying ‘salaries’ to terrorists.
During an interview with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour accused him of creating “a lot of tension” by attempting to quell Palestinian violence at Jerusalem’s holiest site.
To clarify, here’s the real story.
Despite the unprecedented breadth of representation that characterized Israel’s recently dissolved government, the prospect of another round of elections has led some media pundits to mock Israel’s democratic credentials.
- HonestReporting Expanding: New Staff
Photo by Marc Israel Sellem
Gil Hoffman - Executive Director
Gil Hoffman is the executive director of HonestReporting.com. Previously, he served as chief political correspondent and analyst for The Jerusalem Post for nearly 25 years.
Well-connected to Israeli and Palestinian leaders, he has interviewed every major figure across the Israeli political spectrum, has been interviewed by top media on six continents and is a regular analyst on CNN, Al-Jazeera and other news outlets.
He was raised in Chicago, graduated Magna Cum Laude from Northwestern University’s School of Journalism, and wrote for the Miami Herald and Arizona Republic before moving to Israel. A reserve soldier in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, he has lectured in every major English-speaking country in the world, more than half the Canadian provinces, and recently made history in Hawaii by becoming the first speaker to have lectured about Israel in all 50 US states. He lives with his family in Jerusalem
Chaim Lax - Editor
Originally from Toronto, Canada, Chaim moved to Israel in 2018. He has a B.A. (Hons) in Political Science and History from York University as well as an M.A. in Israel Studies from the Rothberg International School at Hebrew University. Prior to joining Honest Reporting, Chaim worked with a variety of Israel advocacy organizations in both Canada and Israel.
- Social Media Soars in Q2!
On our rebooted Instagram account, HonestReporting put out 88 pieces of content. Our Instagram posts reached 390 percent more people compared to the previous 90 days, with average video views ranging from 450-2.2K. Meanwhile, our reel (short films) content averaged from 700-3K views. HonestReporting Instagram stories during this quarter averaged 100-600 unique views per post.
On Twitter we put out 106 pieces of content. Our Twitter engagement rate increased by 120 percent, with over 1,140 mentions. Meanwhile average video views ranged from 1.4k- 2.5K, while content shares shot up 40 percent for the second quarter of this year.
- Stats
Social Media stats for March 1 → June 30, 2021
- Quarterly Facebook stats
1.1M
Reach
- Quarterly Twitter stats
