The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting (CAMERA) has challenged The Wall Street Journal for alleged inaccuracies in an article asserting that “Gen Z Palestinians Have Little Hope for Peace.”
Andrea Levin, CAMERA’s executive director and president, published a critique of the piece on July 26, in which she cited a recent National Review article as an explanation for what she regards as decreases in fact-checking, depth of reporting and overall editorial quality at the publication under the leadership of new editor-in-chief Emma Tucker.
“The increasingly skewed, factually shoddy coverage of Israel is a striking indicator of the wider shift in tenor and content,” Levin wrote of what she and National Review characterize as the changing face of a journalistic institution long-respected and honored for its high standards, now appearing to chase online traffic with clicky headlines and lighter, sexier lifestyle pieces.
Levin labeled the Gen Z Palestinians article writer Omar Abdel-Baqui as a “poster child for this new Wall Street Journal,” saying that his June 15 piece showed “far too little fact-checking and editorial oversight.”
Characterizing the article’s bias as a “relentless omission of critical information,” Levin wrote that “there’s no hint in the story that the Palestinian leadership has repeatedly refused an independent and peaceful state next to the Jewish state of Israel.”
Levin said the article offers “no suggestion the melancholy Gen Z Palestinian teens who are cast as buffeted by upheaval and uncertainty should blame their own autocratic leaders for ruining their lives.”
This denial of the Palestinians’ role in preventing peace permeates the WSJ article, she added.
“The Gen Z’ers and their families are cast as innocents simply looking for an open door if Israel would only offer one,” Levin wrote. “The formulation is a lie insofar as it overlooks critical facts such as those cited above and many related ones.”
The CAMERA leader also challenges what she calls “shoddy reporting on settlements,” pointing to a photo caption declaring that Israeli settlements had “ballooned” since the 1990s.
“The opposite is true. The large majority of existing settlements were founded in the 1970s and 1980s (a total of 116) with just 7 added in the 1990s and another 5 in the last 24 years,” Levin writes.
When CAMERA took these concerns to the WSJ, it received a response defending Abdel-Baqui’s writing and stating that “the articles are accurate; there aren’t any errors to correct.”
