In the last six months, two widely-covered HonestReporting investigations brought to light shocking antisemitism espoused by journalists working for mainstream publications. After our May 23 article on Tala Halawa, who tweeted that “#HitlerWasRight,” the reporter was promptly fired by the BBC. In August, our work on Mariam Barghouti, who contended that “Israel has been beating Hitler at his own game since 1948,” led to her effectively being blacklisted by the outlets that had previously disseminated her anti-Israel talking points.
Today, we expose a pundit whose sheer volume of vile Judeophobic tweets towers over Halawa’s and Barghouti’s.
On May 13, at the height of the 11-day Hamas-initiated conflict against the Jewish state, The New York Times published a guest essay by Refaat Alareer titled, “My Child Asks, ‘Can Israel Destroy Our Building if the Power Is Out?’” The article falsely alleged that the Israel Defense Forces hit targets in the Gaza Strip with “no strategic value,” while implying that Israelis “draw straws” or “roll a dice” to decide “which block to annihilate” — essentially promoting a modern-day blood libel.
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Nevertheless, Alareer’s malicious propaganda piece was included in a lesson plan for high schools by the NYT’s Learning Network. The writer and literature professor has also been cited or interviewed by The Washington Post, The Guardian, NBC News, NPR, PBS, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Qatar’s Al Jazeera (see here, here, here, here and here).
The New York Times simply identified Alareer as “the editor of ‘Gaza Writes Back,’ a collection of short stories.” However, a modicum of research reveals that he’s also a raging antisemite.
An analysis of Alareer’s Twitter profile shows that over the last two years he posted at least 115 tweets comparing the Jewish state and Israelis to Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler.
Ironically, Alareer in January denounced The New York Times for supporting “nazi Israel” — just months before the “newspaper of record” provided him with a platform to spew his venom.
Alareer has furthermore asserted that Israel is “nazi Germany on steriods [sic]” and that Zionism — the movement for Jewish self-determination — and Nazism “are two cheeks of the same dirty arse.” He insisted that “Israel is following nazism to the letter” and that proponents of the nation are part of a “far more dangerous cult than nazism.”
Hitler is as peaceful as any Israeli leader.
— Refaat🇵🇸 (@itranslate123) September 25, 2020
According to Alareer, “Hitler is as peaceful as any Israeli leader” because the Jewish state is carrying out a “second Holocaust.” He has moreover promoted the scandalous, baseless claim that Israel “starves Holocaust victims and steals their money to slaughter and occupy native Palestinians,” while simultaneously engaging in Holocaust revisionism.
Even Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, which saves both Israeli and Palestinian lives by preventing military escalations, is, in Alareer’s view, a “nazi-like Israeli killing machine.”
At the same time, he has expressed support for Palestinian terrorism, “no matter how the means.” The day after his NYT piece was published, Alareer boasted how he spent “half his childhood” throwing stones at Israeli military jeeps. “No form, act, or means of Palestinian resistance whatsoever is terror,” Alreer has asserted, adding that all Israelis are “soldiers.” He has criticized Hamas, the US-designated terror group that rules Gaza, for engaging in prisoner-swap negotiations with “terrorists” and “nazis” [i.e., Israel].
there must be no shame in resistance, no matter how the means.
— Refaat🇵🇸 (@itranslate123) August 27, 2021
When writers espouse such grotesque antisemitism, their reporting on the Arab-Israeli conflict cannot be trusted. In fact, it should discount them from being published at all.
As such, HonestReporting calls on The New York Times and other outlets to stop relying on avid Jew-haters like Alareer to misinform their readerships.
To register a complaint with The New York Times editorial board please contact [email protected]. Letters to the editor can be sent to [email protected].
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