A French newspaper of record, Le Monde, appears to be in turmoil following revelations that editors actively promote the cause of the pro-Palestinian camp, and even Hezbollah.
An investigation published Tuesday by another French newspaper of record, Le Figaro, showed that Israel and Gaza are not subject to equal treatment in Le Monde. According to the report, Israel is singled out for criticism, while Hamas and the Gazans are defended by some of the editorial staff, including a deputy editor who is married to a pro-Palestinian activist.
In its investigation, based on anonymous testimonies from Le Monde employees, Le Figaro highlights “an omerta” (a code of silence) said to exist among the editorial staff on the topic of anti-Israel bias. As one journalist told the newspaper, “People are afraid.”
Other employees at the daily said that there is a “Gaza wall” in the newsroom featuring a “Stop Genocide” sticker, images stigmatizing Israel, and articles claiming Israel is committing “massacres and atrocities.” Israel is denounced as a “criminal state” by some editors, who downplay or ignore the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people were killed.
At the same time, according to Le Figaro, some articles published by Le Monde use deliberately pro-Palestinian vocabulary. In some cases, the paper has favorably covered Hezbollah, referring to its leader Hassan Nasrallah as a “martyr” after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Sept. 27. The newspaper later issued a correction, saying the word was the result of a typographical error.
Defining Hamas as a “terrorist organization” also seems to pose a problem for the daily’s international news department, which prefers the terms “Islamist” and “Palestinian movement.”
“In the large feature piece on [Hamas leader] Yahya Sinwar published on the day of his death [Oct. 17, 2024], the term ‘terrorist’ was carefully avoided,” Le Figaro reported.
The deputy editor-in-chief of Le Monde’s international service reportedly took an open stance against Israel on several occasions and allowed the inclusion of antisemitic terms in articles passed on to staff editors. Le Figaro also noted the trenchant positions of his wife, several of whose tweets bore the hashtag #FreePalestine on the day of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.
A number of journalists have questioned this positioning in a newsroom that has claimed for decades to be as “impartial as possible” in its treatment of the news. According to Le Figaro, the discomfort pointed out by members of the editorial staff was also the subject of an internal investigation, but it was closed without any action being taken.
Interviewed by Le Figaro for its report, Le Monde’s editorial director Jérôme Fenoglio was keen to defend the deputy editor-in-chief. He said that his newspaper continued to work for “the unwavering defense of Israel’s existence, rooted in an awareness of the Shoah and a resolute rejection of antisemitism,” and for “the defense of the Palestinians’ legitimate right to self-determination, which would lead to them having their own state.”
A statement by the Le Monde board of directors claimed that “in no case are the actions of this individual representative of the company or of the editorial staff as a whole.”
Originally published by European Jewish Press.