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Message
from the Managing Editor
Dear Friends,
HonestReporting’s work was cited by dozens of media outlets worldwide during the third quarter of 2021. All the while, our Twitter posts have garnered millions of impressions.
In July, we pushed back on Ben & Jerry’s announcement that it would no longer sell its products in what it called “Occupied Palestinian Territory;” that is, the disputed West Bank. HonestReporting CEO Daniel Pomerantz published an extensive analysis of the legal implications of the decision and was thereafter quoted in The Washington Post. Additionally, we filed a complaint with the US Office of Antiboycott Compliance.
Clearly, The New York Post — which has some 2.2 million followers on Twitter — has also been keeping a close eye on our articles. On August 28, the outlet published a report about alleged self-dealing by Anuradha Mittal, the head of Ben & Jerry’s independent board of directors. HonestReporting previously reported on this issue. It is clear that our work is on the NY Post’s radar.
Our pieces over the last few months have also been flagged by lawmakers in Europe. On August 19, we revealed that the Western-backed Palestinian Authority and its ruling Fatah faction are actively supporting antisemitic riots in the West Bank city of Beita. In response, a Dutch lawmaker submitted written questions in parliament that prompted Foreign Minister Sigrid Kaag to denounce Ramallah’s backing for swastika-laden Jewish Stars of David that were burned on numerous occasions.
On August 17, we published, “As Media Berate Israel, Hamas Reportedly Hiding Enough Funds to Fully Rebuild Gaza Strip,” which amplified an exposé on Hamas’ secret foreign investment portfolio, reportedly worth more than $500 million. After HonestReporting took action, the apparent revelation was cited in several European outlets, prompting Belgian MP Kathleen Depoorter to submit questions to the government about development aid to the Gaza Strip.
We also called out the Associated Press for describing terrorists in Gaza as “activists.” The Daily Mail, Fox News and other news sites reported on the issue, forcing AP to issue a statement saying that “going forward” it would “weigh whether they are best called Hamas fighters, militants or activists.”
Moreover, HonestReporting uncovered that Mariam Barghouti, a Palestinian contributor to, among other outlets, The Washington Post, The New York Times and CNN, compared Israel to Nazi Germany.
Furthermore, following our critique of Peter Beinart’s August 11 “guest essay” for The New York Times, titled “America Needs to Start Telling the Truth About Israel’s Nukes,” HonestReporting was cited not only by Israel Hayom but also by several Arabic-language publications (see here, here and here).
These are just some of the successes we achieved during Q3 that demonstrate HonestReporting’s ongoing expansion and growing influence.
With your support, for which we are grateful, together we will undoubtedly continue to go from strength to strength.
Sincerely,
Charles Bybelezer
- TAKING CENTER STAGE
⸺ Originally published in Maariv newspaper, July 25, 2021
- Notable Successes
Our exclusive research has revealed that the Western-backed Palestinian Authority and its ruling Fatah faction are actively backing antisemitic extremists. In fact, a senior Palestinian official praised them just hours after they had set alight a swastika. Two days later, Fatah’s legislative body held a meeting in Beita to “support the popular resistance.”
The Associated Press last month faced criticism after HonestReporting highlighted how the wire service appeared to minimize the severity of arson balloon attacks on Israel by Gaza Strip-based rioters, some of whom have ties to or are members of US-designated terrorist groups.
On June 27, The New York Times published a piece that included this inaccuracy:
… Israel’s management of the Temple Mount, which Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary and which is home to the sacred Al Aqsa Mosque.”
HonestReporting contacted the NYT to point out that, in fact, it is the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, an Islamic religious trust, that controls and manages the Islamic sites on and around the Temple Mount.
- SURVEY
After showing individuals a brief HonestReporting-produced video explaining May’s Hamas-initiated conflict, one-third of respondents (Americans aged 18-44) said they then felt more supportive of Israel. This includes the critically important 18-24 cohort, in which there was a 32 percent rise in positive sentiment.
Check our website for updates in the near future, including the release of the survey results and information about an upcoming project to reach young people.
- ARTICLES
An earth-shattering event happened in Congress: House Democrats passed an important budget bill but removed $1 billion in emergency funding for Israel’s Iron Dome: that is, the defense system that protects Israeli communities from rockets and missiles fired, most typically, by US-designated terror organizations in the Gaza Strip. Echoing House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid called the move a mere “technical delay.” It is not.
What Ben & Jerry’s is planning to do in the case of Israel is illegal, and is constitutionally analogous to a private act of war against a US ally. This is exactly what AirBnB attempted to do in November 2018 when it removed listings of properties owned by Israeli Jews in the West Bank, prompting a number of organizations, including HonestReporting, to take actions that helped put a swift end to their misguided and illegal adventure.
Charles Bybelezer
Managing Editor
A truly terrible incident that deserves recounting. Perhaps more so, if the AFP had actually done a modicum of due diligence in order to provide conclusive facts about how the injury was sustained. While the article notes that “the Shabans say Mohammed was injured by a missile fired by the Israelis,” immediately thereafter it contains the modifier, “although AFP could not independently verify it.”
A thorough examination of the claims reveals that the entire foundation upon which the report was constructed is flawed. HRW’s “investigation” — which essentially recycles allegations from other unnamed NGOs and The New York Times — fails to present any concrete evidence to support its accusations. At the same time, Hamas, the US-designated terrorist organization that rules the Gaza Strip, is exonerated of all responsibility for the deaths of civilians in militarized areas under its control.
Gidon Ben-Zvi
Senior Editor
The NYT has a major responsibility to get the facts right on a topic as complex and nuanced as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Instead, it has conjured up a country — “Palestine” — that does not exist according to international law and never has.
A piece that appeared in The Washington Post titled, Israel freezes funds it says aid attackers’ families, grossly misrepresents the existence of a Palestinian Authority law requiring that seven percent of Ramallah’s annual budget be allocated to a “Martyrs Fund” that incentivizes the killing of Israelis.
Emanuel Miller
Writer / Social Media
Unfortunately, rather than properly depict the six as terrorists, numerous news articles failed to clearly identify them as such. Worse still, a number of media reports actually portrayed the terrorists in flattering terms.
This weekend, Palestinian police assaulted and arrested two journalists from The Washington Post. Despite this attack on the free press, the incident has not been covered anywhere in the international media — not even by The Washington Post itself.
Akiva Van Koningsveld
Editor
Leading German daily Die Welt has published an exposé on Hamas’ secret foreign investment portfolio. According to documents obtained by the newspaper from Western intelligence sources, the US-designated terror group holds interests in some 40 international companies in the Middle East and North Africa, with an estimated value exceeding $500 million.
On September 8, The Nation announced the hiring of Mohammed El-Kurd as its first-ever “Palestine Correspondent.” El-Kurd, a student at the City University of New York’s Brooklyn College, said he would be writing about “Palestinian resistance without burrowing in the sand,” using language that is “loyal to the Palestinian street.”
Rachel O'Donoghue
Senior Editor
Her work has been published in, among other outlets, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian and Newsweek. She has been interviewed by CNN and, seemingly, the BBC. She has been described by outlets variously as a Palestinian “journalist,” “writer,” “analyst” and “researcher.” Mariam Barghouti is, then, a relatively well-known “go-to” voice on Israeli-Palestinian affairs. She is also an antisemite.
Berkeley’s Chancellor Carol Christ was forced to issue an apology in response to revelations that Hatem Bazian, an Islamic law and theology scholar who teaches in the university’s Departments of Near Eastern and Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies, had retweeted a gruesome cartoon depicting an Israeli soldier holding up the heart of a Palestinian man.
- Videos
The New York Times described the assassinated mastermind of Iran’s illicit nuclear weapons program as having “wanted to live a normal life,” someone who enjoyed poetry and spending time with family. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed last November in an operation attributed to Israel’s Mossad spy agency.
On August 9, 2001, Palestinians perpetrated a suicide bombing at the Sbarro pizza restaurant in central Jerusalem. Sixteen people, including eight children, were killed in one of the deadliest attacks of the Second Intifada. Another 130 were injured. As of 2021, Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority had rewarded the perpetrators and their families with almost $1.2 million.
For the first time since the Second Lebanon War (2006), Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for rockets fired into Israel. The number could easily have been higher. When Druze citizens of a village in southern Lebanon spotted Hezbollah fighters, they surrounded the terrorists and drove them out, angrily accusing them of firing from a civilian area.
- HonestReporting Expanding: New Staff
Originally from Miami, Florida, Maya moved to Israel in December 2014. Before joining HonestReporting, she worked as a core team member at the Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center and, most recently, in hi-tech, where for four years she was a Project Manager and Data Analyst specializing in identifying and tracking antisemitism on social media platforms.
Maya holds a B.A. in History from the University of Florida with a focus on Holocaust Studies and Jewish Studies. In 2020, she received an M.A. in Political Science, with an emphasis on security and diplomacy, from Tel Aviv University, where she graduated with honors.
- Stats
Social Media stats for March 1 → June 30, 2021
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- Quarterly Twitter stats
