The Jerusalem-based media watchdog group HonestReporting called on Monday for The New York Times and other outlets to stop giving a platform to glaring anti-Semites.
During the 11-day conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip in May, which started when the terror organization began launching rockets at Israeli population centers, the Times published an essay by Gaza resident Refaat Alareer, co-editor of Gaza Unsilenced (2015) and former editor of (and contributor to) Gaza Writes Back (2014).
In it, he falsely claimed that Israelis “draw straws” as to “which block [in Gaza] to annihilate,” thus promoting a modern-day blood libel, said the watchdog group.
The article then became part of a lesson plan for high schools by The New York Times Learning Network.
Alareer has also been quoted or interviewed by The Washington Post, The Guardian, NBC News, NPR, PBS, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Qatar’s Al Jazeera.
In addition, HonestReporting discovered that over the past two years, he posted at least 115 tweets comparing Israel and Israelis to Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler.
In one tweet, he wrote that Zionism and Nazism “are two cheeks of the same dirty arse.”
“When writers espouse such antisemitism, their reporting on the Arab-Israeli conflict cannot be trusted. In fact, it should discount them from being published at all,” said HonestReporting.
