2023

Annual Report​

Jacki Alexander
Chief Executive Officer

Letter from Chief Executive Officer

2023 has been overshadowed by the horrific events of October 7 and the subsequent war against Hamas in Gaza.

But before October 7 ever happened, the Israeli people had been facing a year of increased terrorism. The Yaniv brothers (19 and 21) were murdered while driving. The Paley brothers (6 and 8) were murdered while waiting at a bus stop. And, the Dee sisters (16 and 20) and their mother were murdered on their way to vacation. Alessandro Parini was murdered for the crime of walking on the Tel Aviv boardwalk.

Yet, the international discourse both downplayed and legitimized many of these attacks.

Then, October 7th happened.

Never before has it been so obvious that for all its military prowess, Israel is at a significant disadvantage in the battlefield of the media. And the impact has been frightening. Dramatically rising levels of antisemitism; Jewish communities under threat; universities becoming hotbeds of anti-Israel agitation; Israel accused of everything from “genocide” to stealing the organs of Palestinians.

And all amplified by media that took fewer than four days to lose sympathy for the victims of October 7 and instead to parrot the Hamas narrative while claiming to be “unable to verify” the statements and evidence of the Israeli side.

With HonestReporting’s new media strategy, we were able to have a significant impact on the discourse surrounding coverage of Israel.

Before the beginning of 2023, HonestReporting took a strategic decision to significantly upgrade our social media, recognizing its importance, particularly among the 18-35 demographic. The rate of growth during the year was nothing short of astonishing. From 4 million impressions on all of our platforms in the whole of 2022, that figure had already reached over 39 million by the end of September. In October, a further 56.3 million impressions were achieved in that month alone.

Our content, adapted from our traditional online media critiques, is being disseminated on social media to those who need it most, turning complicated issues into easily understood concepts and providing the tools to combat the lies and disinformation.

HonestReporting’s content has reached an unprecedented number of people this year. And that reach has given us a powerful tool to effect change. When we exposed the Gazan photojournalists who accompanied Hamas on the October 7 massacre, it was the combined amplification by social media that successfully convinced mainstream news outlets to cut ties with those freelancers. When we called out Christiane Amanpour for misrepresenting the Dee family’s murder, it was the amplified outrage on social media that resulted in her public apology. Our results in 2023 are a direct result of our subscribers’ and followers’ activism.

Thank you for validating our work and allowing us to impact the narrative.

2024 promises to be another challenging year for Israel but HonestReporting is uniquely positioned to meet those challenges head-on as Israel contends with the fallout of the Israeli military campaign in Gaza.

Here’s to better days ahead for us all,

Jacki Alexander

Chief Executive Officer

New Staff

HonestReporting continues to expand in all departments. While we would love to profile the incredible individuals who have joined us in 2023, the Israel-Hamas war has resulted in our prioritizing the safety and security of our staff. Therefore, to avoid exposing them to potential risks, particularly from those online who wish to cause us harm, we will not publicly name them in this annual report.

In the past year, we have welcomed:

  • A new Senior Editor, a veteran news media professional with 15 years of experience at Reuters as a journalist, video editor and producer covering Israel and the Palestinian territories, who has broken some highly significant stories for HonestReporting in the past several months.
 
  • Our new Social Media Strategist, who has played a key role in the enormous growth of HonestReporting’s social media, worked for various Israeli news publications, including i24NEWS, Haaretz, and the Jerusalem Post as well as managing social media at an international tech firm based in Israel.
 
  • Our National Development Director joins us following a decade at a major American Jewish organization, and brings her experience to help HonestReporting reach new and existing donors across the United States.

Notable Successes - Before October 7

  • Responding to the Wave of Terror

  • Responding to the Wave of Terror

For much of the year, Israel continued to suffer from a wave of Palestinian terror and the resulting skewed coverage in the international media.

On one weekend at the end of January, Israel’s capital was rocked by two terror attacks within the span of 14 hours when a terrorist opened fire outside a synagogue in the northeastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Neve Yaakov, murdering seven people and injuring three more. Then, hours later, a 13-year-old Palestinian opened fire on a group of Jews returning from prayer in the Silwan neighborhood outside the Old City, wounding a father and son.

On both occasions, HonestReporting responded on social media in real-time as the foreign press published their stories, exposing headline failures, bias, and getting factual information corrected.

On Twitter, HonestReporting’s posts called out media outlets including The New York Times, ABC News, CBS News, NPR, The Guardian, The Times of London, and The Independent. Over 165,000 people saw one tweet admonishing Reuters.

HonestReporting was there again when a Palestinian rammed his car into a Jerusalem bus stop only a few weeks later, tragically murdering two young Israeli children. The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, AP, Reuters, BBC, The Times of London, and Daily Mail were immediately challenged on their reporting. One tweet critiquing NPR gained a remarkable 267,000 impressions alone.

  • CNN's Christiane Amanpour Issues Live Apology Following HonestReporting Campaign

HonestReporting discovered veteran CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour’s throwaway remark that the brutal Palestinian terrorist murders of Lucy, Maia, and Rina Dee were the result of “a shootout.”

We exposed it to the world, along with a demand for an apology that went viral with over 1.5 million views on Twitter. This was later bolstered by Lucy’s widower, Rabbi Leo Dee, and Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Amanpour might have thought she would get away with a private apology to Rabbi Dee, who heard that she had maligned his family from HonestReporting.

But HonestReporting and Rabbi Dee insisted on a public apology on the same highly-rated show in which she made her mistake. We initiated a petition that upped the pressure.

Ten days too late, the public apology arrived: “On April 10, I referred to the murders of an Israeli family: Lucy, Maia and Rina Dee, the wife and daughters of Rabbi Leo Dee,” Amanpour said. “I misspoke and said they were killed in a shootout instead of a shooting. I have written to Rabbi Leo Dee to apologize and make sure that he knows that we apologize for any further pain that may have caused him.”

  • Operation Shield and Arrow​

When HonestReporting called out the media for sanitizing the terrorist hunger striker Khader Adnan, little did we know that Islamic Jihad’s violent reaction would be the catalyst for a five-day Israeli military operation in May, bringing a tsunami of faulty media reports.

HonestReporting worked around the clock during Operation Shield and Arrow and in its aftermath. Many media outlets erased the over 100 rockets fired by Islamic Jihad in response to Adnan’s death in favor of making their starting point the Israeli operation to eliminate the terrorists responsible for the rockets.

Some media, including The New York Times and Washington Post sanitized Islamic Jihad, while others such as Reuters suggested there is some kind of moral equivalence between Israel and Islamic Jihad.

HonestReporting was the first and fastest to call out media bias wherever it appeared.

  • The Guardian Forced to Correct Claim That Israeli Women Can’t Leave Their Homes Without a Male Guardian

When The Guardian published an article that claimed Israel has “rules restricting a woman’s freedom to live, work and study,” HonestReporting immediately exposed this falsehood on social media.

The resulting outcry from a tweet viewed by over 182,000 people forced The Guardian to remove in its entirety a map that included Israel as one of 15 countries where women cannot leave their homes without male guardians.

The incident also demonstrated the unholy symbiotic relationship between the media and non-governmental organizations such as Human Rights Watch, from where The Guardian had republished the faulty information without doing any due diligence.

  • The Infographics Show Apologizes for Switching Out Israeli for Palestinian Flags

YouTube channel The Infographics Show has 13.3 million subscribers with a further 6 million on Facebook and 1.7 million on TikTok, where it publishes “animated motion infographic videos, made in a fun and entertaining way.” Clearly, this channel has an enormous reach.

So it was important to get a video about the remarkable 1976 Israeli operation to rescue Israeli and Jewish hostages from Entebbe, Uganda, fixed after nearly all of the Israelis were drawn with and represented by Palestinian flags.

A representative of The Infographics Show responded swiftly to HonestReporting’s complaint, thanking us for bringing the error to their attention:

“It is disappointing to me that such a big mistake failed our QC process and I have ordered a review of what went wrong during the production. The video has been made private until we are able to fix the issues and will be asking YouTube to replace it with a fixed version.

Please know there was no deliberate or politically motivated bias here. I am just as horrified to learn about the error we made as you must have been.”

The video was subsequently corrected before being removed in its entirety.

Notable Successes - After October 7

The horrific events of October 7 and the subsequent war against Hamas in Gaza have dominated 2023. The resulting media coverage and a wave of global antisemitism saw HonestReporting working around the clock to push back against the bias and lies spreading in the media and online.

Having focused on significantly upgrading HonestReporting’s social media during the preceding months, the organization came into its own as Israel came under fire not only from Gazan terrorists but also on platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and TikTok.

From an already impressive average of 4 million impressions each month across all social media platforms, October alone witnessed an astonishing climb to over 56 million, propelled by HonestReporting content addressing media bias and anti-Israel libels in real time, reaching beyond the choir as well as giving Israeli and Jewish communities worldwide the tools to fight back against the hate.

But HonestReporting also had a significant impact on the media battlefield, exposing the bias as well as ensuring agenda-driven Palestinian media workers were no longer in a position to skew the coverage.

  • The Reporters Covering the War

With foreign journalists prevented from entering Gaza, international media outlets were relying on local employees to provide reports and footage from the Strip.

HonestReporting revealed how the main reporter covering the war in Gaza for the Associated Press had called publicly for the annihilation of Israel and a “Palestinian revolt” and compared Israel to the Nazis.

The social media history and pro-Palestinian activism of Issam Adwan, who joined the wire service in August after working for Al Jazeera English and anti-Israeli non-governmental organizations, revealed some disturbing and antisemitic content, demonstrating that he could not be relied upon for objective coverage of the conflict.

As a result of HonestReporting’s expose, Adwan was reassigned by AP pending an investigation. Adwan’s byline has not been seen on AP’s Israel coverage since.

We jumped into action again when it became clear that The New York Times had rehired a freelancer previously exposed by HonestReporting for his pro-Hitler, pro-terrorist social media posts.

Soliman Hijjy’s byline suddenly reappeared in several New York Times articles dating back to Oct. 12, just days after the Hamas massacre despite The New York Times assuring us in correspondence that it had “taken appropriate action” against him.

HonestReporting immediately wrote to The New York Times demanding an explanation, while our tweet was seen by over 300,000 people. This resulted in the story being picked up by numerous news outlets, including Fox News, as well as prompting a reaction from Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, whose tweet was viewed by a further 600,000 people.

Ultimately, despite The New York Times’ public defense of Hijjy, the paper has not used him since HonestReporting’s campaign.

  • Broken Borders?
Media Showcase Oct. 7 Pictures by Gaza Photojournalists as “Images of the Year”

HonestReporting published possibly one of the most impactful stories in its history when it revealed that freelance photojournalists working for major international news organizations had accompanied Hamas terrorists on their October 7 rampage.

We were horrified to see images of a burning Israeli tank on the Israeli side of a border that had been breached by Hamas and, as it turned out, many “fellow travelers” who accompanied them. We were disgusted to see that some of these images, including at least one of the body of German-Israel Shani Louk lying in the back of a truck, were attributed to Gaza photojournalists who were paid by media outlets for their images — images that could only have been captured inside Israel as the massacre was taking place.

There were so many unanswered questions and we decided to put them into the public sphere.

The reaction was swift. More damning evidence started to emerge, particularly concerning Hassan Eslaiah, one of the four Gaza photojournalists we’d flagged as being inside Israel. AP and CNN took steps to sever ties with him.

All of the media outlets involved — AP, CNN, Reuters, and The New York Times — publicly stated they had no prior knowledge of what was to occur on the morning of October 7, which HonestReporting had not accused them of.

Those media outlets also pushed back against HonestReporting in an attempt to deflect from the real issues. But the conversation had been started.

The story created an unprecedented amount of coverage in major media around the globe at a level unseen in HonestReporting’s history. The Israeli government issued their own condemnations of the photojournalists and the media that had enabled them. Later, a group of 14 states attorneys general initiated an investigation into the case warning the chiefs of CNN, The New York Times, Reuters, and AP to better vet their freelancers lest they fall foul of laws against providing material support to terrorist organizations like Hamas.

In the media blitz that followed, both Gil Hoffman and Simon Plosker appeared on Israel’s most-watched news programs on Channel 12 News to explain to the Israeli public the significance of HonestReporting’s discovery, and Jacki Alexander appeared on News Nation.

Subsequently, in the following months, more evidence has emerged of Gazan media workers’ direct involvement in the events of October 7, including the possibility that some may have had advance notice of Hamas’ operation.

Addressing the Crucial Issues

With the amount of misinformation and disinformation about Israel online, it’s vital that HonestReporting provides the facts on a range of crucial issues.

That’s why we’ve created content in the form of infographics, slideshows and videos that take complicated concepts and turn them into digestible content accessible to a wide audience.

Here are just a few of the issues we’ve covered over 2023 on our social media platforms:

What's really going on in al-Shifa Hospital?

Israel's War Against Hamas Proves Gaza Was Never an Open-Air Prison

What Happens in Gaza The Day After?

What's really going on in al-Shifa Hospital?

Israel's War Against Hamas Proves Gaza Was Never an Open-Air Prison

What Happens in Gaza The Day After?

Social Media

Israel’s enemies have long recognized how they can effectively poison young minds on social media, making it imperative for us to be there to counter the hate campaigns. In 2023, HonestReporting made social media a priority. We strategically created content that addressed trending anti-Israel libels with short-form videos and graphic content. We collaborated with existing content creators. And the numbers speak for themselves:

2022 (full year)

Impressions / Reach
4.2 million views
Engagement (interaction with our content)
309,173 clicks
Total Posts (all platforms)
1,646 posts
Posts per Day (all platforms)
4.5 posts
Video Views
139,847 views

2023 (full year)

Impressions / Reach
122.8 million views
Engagement (interaction with our content)
18.2 million clicks
Total Posts (all platforms)
5,888 posts
Posts per Day (all platforms)
22.2 posts
Video Views
24,055,518 million views

Impressions / Reach

Engagement (interaction with our content)

Total Posts (all platforms)

Posts per Day (all platforms)

Video Views

2022 (full year)
4.2 million views
309,173 clicks
1,646 posts
4.5 posts
139,847 views
2023 (full year)
122.8 million views
18.2 million clicks
5,888 posts
22.2 posts
24,055,518 million views

If you’re not yet following us on social media, please click on the links below. And, if you’re not on social media, make sure you look out for our weekly Friday email that includes the best of that week’s social media content.

Facebook Twitter Youtube Instagram Tiktok

Corrections

During 2023, HonestReporting achieved over 100 significant corrections from media outlets including:

The New York Times x12
The Washington Post x4
Associated Press x7
CNN x5
Reuters x6
AFP
BBC World News x8
NBC News
National Public Radio
Fox News x2
Sky News x7
ABC Australia News Radio
Voice of America x3
ABC News
The Times of London x5
The Sunday Times
The Independent
The Daily Telegraph x4
Daily Mail x6
CBS News
The Guardian
Daily Express
Bloomberg
Forbes
UPI x7
Business Insider x2
ITV London x2
ABC Australia x4
SBS Australia x3
Radio New Zealand
Defense News
SABC News
IOL News
MSN News
The Infographics Show
Deadline
MEAWW
Owen Jones
Wizz Air inflight magazine
Arkansas Democrat Gazette

HonestReporting in the Media

HonestReporting has increasingly become the source of expertise that top media outlets turn to for interviews and analysis.

Here are just a few of the media outlets where we were published, interviewed or cited in 2023:

HonestReporting Keeps 'Eye On Media' in Classic Jerusalem Post Column

The popular media monitoring column Eye on the Media that was initiated in The Jerusalem Post by its venerated late editor David Bar-Illan more than 30 years ago was relaunched in September by HonestReporting executive director and executive editor Gil Hoffman.

The column, which runs biweekly in the newspaper’s weekend magazine and Jpost.com, covers challenges and trends in the international media’s coverage of Israel.

Bar-Illan wrote the column when he was the Post’s editor-in-chief from 1992 to 1996 and resumed it after a stint as director of communications and policy planning in the Prime Minister’s Office before he passed away in 2003. He also wrote a book about the international media’s coverage of Israel, which was also called Eye on the Media.

Hoffman’s first column appeared in advance of Yom Kippur and called on foreign media to repent for their incorrect coverage of Israel.

Education

HonestReporting continues to create content on our website to include topics that people look for when they want answers about Israel and the Middle East.

Here is just a small selection of the in-depth posts that have been written and published during 2023:

Speaking Events and Public Appearances

During 2023, HR’s executive director Gil Hoffman has been on two major US speaking tours as well as a visit to the UK. He has brought HonestReporting to communities and college campuses across America, speaking to students at Northwestern, the University of Arkansas, SUNY Binghamton, UC Berkeley, and Tulane.

Gil also addressed communities in Maryland, South Carolina, Connecticut, Virginia, Illinois, Texas, Ohio, Arizona, Missouri, New Jersey, Florida, Louisiana, and Michigan as well as a significant number of visiting groups in Israel during the year.

Visiting London twice in May and June, Gil addressed six of the UK’s largest synagogues as well as important meetings with officials at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office where he explained the reality behind the current news about Israel and its government.

Gil also met at the House of Lords with Baroness Ruth Deech, a champion of media transparency and fair coverage of Israel in the UK press.

HonestReporting has also been involved in briefing diplomats, including Singapore’s first-ever ambassador to Israel and a team of visiting top Foreign Ministry officials from the country who met with Gil Hoffman, while Editorial Director Simon Plosker was a guest of the newly appointed Czech ambassador to discuss the Israel-Hamas war.

Gil in Boca Raton, Florida with Ben Shapiro (center).
Gil Hoffman with Baroness Ruth Deech in London.
Gil Hoffman with AJC Executive Director Ted Deutsch.

Interns

HonestReporting takes interns from a variety of Jewish Agency MASA-affiliated programs.

Reaching the younger generation is important to us; our interns don’t spend their time serving us coffee. HonestReporting interns become part of the team and make valuable contributions.

This year, we’ve hosted interns from Johns Hopkins University, Brooklyn College, Reichman University (IDC Herzliya), and the Australian National University, Canberra as well as two from the Aardvark gap year in Israel program.