In 2000, HonestReporting started as a small email list alerting subscribers to anti-Israel media bias. When the organization took on The New York Times over the adjacent photo, the real fight back began as the power of numbers proved its value. Since then, HonestReporting has evolved into the world’s premier grassroots media watchdog organization defending Israel against media bias.
On September 30, 2000, The New York Times, Associated Press and other major media outlets published a photo of a young man — bloodied and battered — crouching beneath a club-wielding Israeli policeman. The caption identified him as a Palestinian victim of recent riots — with the clear implication that the Israeli soldier was the one who beat him.
The victim’s true identity was revealed when Dr. Aaron Grossman of Chicago sent the following letter to the Times:
“Regarding your picture on page A5 of the Israeli soldier and the Palestinian on the Temple Mount — that Palestinian is actually my son, Tuvia Grossman, a Jewish student from Chicago. He, and two of his friends, were pulled from their taxicab while traveling in Jerusalem, by a mob of Palestinian Arabs, and were severely beaten and stabbed. That picture could not have been taken on the Temple Mount because there are no gas stations on the Temple Mount and certainly none with Hebrew lettering, like the one clearly seen behind the Israeli soldier attempting to protect my son from the mob.”
— Dr. Aaron Grossman
In response, the news outlet published a half-hearted correction that identified Tuvia Grossman as “an American student in Israel” — not as a Jew who was beaten by Arabs. The “correction” also noted that “Mr. Grossman was wounded [in] Jerusalem’s Old City” — although the assault actually occurred in the Arab neighborhood of Wadi al Joz.
After additional public outrage, The New York Times reprinted Tuvia Grossman’s picture — this time with the proper caption — along with a full article detailing his near-lynching at the hands of Palestinians.
The photo of a bloodied Tuvia Grossman became a symbol of the struggle to ensure that Israel receives the fair media coverage that every nation deserves.
Reunion Video and Interview
Years later, HonestReporting reunited Tuvia Grossman with Gidon Tzefadi, the Israeli border policeman who rescued him from the Palestinian mob.
View the dramatic reunion in our EXCLUSIVE VIDEO and read an interview with Tuvia.
