Elham Asaad Buaras
More than 300 writers, scholars, and public figures announced on October 27 that they will boycott the New York Times Opinion section, citing what they describe as biased coverage of the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
Signatories include Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, authors Sally Rooney and Rupi Kaur, activist Greta Thunberg, Emmy-winner Hannah Einbinder, and a range of journalists, artists, and past Times contributors such as Mona Chalabi, Mosab Abu Toha, and Nan Goldin.
The boycott, coordinated by a coalition of organisations including Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG), Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), and others, pledges that participants will refuse to contribute to the Times Opinion section until the newspaper addresses its coverage of Palestine.
The group has issued three demands: an internal investigation into alleged anti-Palestinian bias, a retraction of the disputed investigation “Screams Without Words”, and the publication of an editorial calling for a US arms embargo on Israel.
In a joint statement, the signatories wrote, “As past contributors as well as novelists, essayists, scholars, lawyers, poets, political analysts, and public figures covered in the pages of the Times, we decline this invitation to participate in what Ghassan Kanafani called ‘a conversation between the sword and the neck.’”
The letter alleges that The New York Times has reprinted statements from Israeli officials without verification, altered coverage at the request of pro-Israel groups, and instructed reporters to avoid terms such as “slaughter,” “ethnic cleansing,” and “occupied territory.” The signatories argue that while Israeli officials’ claims are treated as fact, reports of alleged genocide are relegated to opinion pieces and debated rather than reported as news.
Several past contributors commented on the boycott. Sophie Lewis stated, “As things currently stand, when it publishes us, the Times ultimately buys our complicity in this settler-colonial holocaust… Today, and until the demands of this boycott are met, I stand with the Palestinian people, and with writers of conscience all over the world, in withholding my labour from an institution that currently deserves to go down in history as another ‘Radio Rwanda.’”
Mohammed El-Kurd, a New York Times bestseller and signatory, added, “The Opinion section is where the paper creates plausible deniability for its anti-Arab racism and its complicity in genocide… They treat the lies of the Israeli government as fact in News coverage yet render the genocide debatable in Opinion.”
The boycott comes as Israel continues airstrikes on Gaza despite announcements of a ceasefire, with organisers calling on the newspaper to be held accountable for its reporting.
(Image courtesy of Writers Against the War on Gaza)
