Why writers must boycott the New York Times

In light of the current phase of ceasefire in Gaza — itself a misnomer given the many hundreds of Palestinians martyred since its formalization —  it is all the more important for those of us in the West to make sure institutions complicit in the genocide in Gaza cannot evade accountability for their actions. Such a holistic program of accountability, which includes countering denialism and the isolation of perpetrators, is not just an ethical obligation but a strategy for combating a culture of impunity that directly enables the Israeli state in its occupation and depopulation campaigns in Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria. A key enabler of the Zionist genocide is The New York Times. Hossam Shabat, one of at least 276 Palestinian journalists killed by Israel for exposing its crimes, put it best: “A reason we are still being bombed… is because of The New York Times and most Western media… The New York Times is complicit in this genocide.”

The so-called “paper of record” played a critical role in manufacturing consent for this genocide. Its coverage erased Palestinian resistance to decades of occupation and siege,  legimitated a debunked myth of systematic sexual violence on October 7th, sowed uncertainty around the Israeli military’s targeting of hospitals, bent syntax to avoid ascribing culpability for targeted assassinations, and helped establish the conditions for famine by undermining the Palestinian aid organization UNWRA and downplaying Israel’s continued siege of Gaza. Post-ceasefire, the paper is rushing to try to rehabilitate Israel’s image, just as it did back in 1982.

The Sabra and Shatila massacre damaged Israel’s reputation in the West much in the same way the intensified genocide of the last two years has. Israel slaughtered thousands of children and civilians in the Shatila refugee camp and the surrounding Sabra neighborhood of Beirut. The massacre threatened to break the Zionist narrative’s stronghold and expose Israel’s project of elimination. In its aftermath, Ronald Reagan called Sabra and Shatila “a holocaust” in a phone call with Menachem Begin, and demanded Israel end its campaign, echoing what Palestinians and Arabs had known for decades — that Zionism is Nazism. Terrified to lose their grip of their narrative in the West, Zionists rushed to establish media watchdog groups like the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA). Their mission was to paper over the truth of Israel’s crimes by pressuring outlets to issue “corrections” and adopt editorial standards that toe the Zionist line.

The current executive editor of The New York Times, Joseph Kahn, learned to read and analyze the news with his father, Leo, who sat on the board of CAMERA for at least 18 years. Leo was still on the board when his son was first hired at the Times in 1998. Kahn, the highest-ranking journalist in the paper’s newsroom, continues his father’s legacy of propping up Zionist lies under the banner of objectivity.

This is but one of the many material links that bind The New York Times to the Zionist project — to apartheid, occupation, and genocide. Many of the Times’s top-ranking editors, reporters, and executives who cover Palestine have served in the Israeli military and have close family members who have; have worked or still work directly for Israeli think tanks; or live in stolen Palestinian homes. 

As a groundswell rises in solidarity with the Palestinian people, more and more are coming to recognize the Times’ narrative collusion with Israel and are joining our ongoing work to expose its revisionism, reveal its material ties to the Zionist entity, and ensure that there are consequences for its journalistic malpractice. Actionists have blockaded the Times’ Long Island printing plant, hacked New York City subway ads in a détournement of its signature font, staged pickets outside Kahn’s West Village apartment, occupied the lobby of its Manhattan headquarters, and doused its facade with red paint and the message “NYT LIES GAZA DIES.”

How else can we hold such an institution accountable? Writers Against the War on Gaza launched our Boycott, Divest, Unsubscribe campaign in an effort to get writers and readers to break away from the Times well over a year ago. While this campaign has undoubtedly changed perceptions of the paper, more is needed. To that end, we helped bring together a coalition of organizations in the Palestine solidarity movement with the aim of severing the economic relationships that the Times depends on. That doesn’t just mean subscribers or advertisers — but also the writers the Times pays to lend the paper legitimacy.

Our coalition has identified the key role that the Times’ Opinion section, in particular, plays in laundering the paper’s reputation, creating plausible deniability for its complicity in genocide. Though many celebrated the paper for publishing an opinion piece finally calling Israel’s annihilatory campaign a genocide after two years, the news side of the operation kept denying it. It also uses the section to publish — and capture the clout of — young, especially Black and brown writers, that it would never bring into the newsroom as fulltime reporters. This blatant cynicism is not simple hypocrisy, but an attempt to curry favor with both Zionists and people of conscience. 

Our coalition calls for anyone with a conscience — writers, academics, artists — to refuse any request to write for the Times opinion pages until three essential demands are met. First, that “Screams Without Words,” the discredited article which bolstered the myth of mass sexual abuse, be retracted. Second, that the editorial board use its massive influence over liberal opinion to demand an arms embargo. And, finally, that the Times reckon with deep anti-Palestinian bias in its newsroom by updating its style guide, methods of sourcing and citation, and hiring practices.

Over 300 past and potential contributors to the Times made this commitment before we launched publicly. Since then, another 200 former contributors or individuals covered by the paper have signed on, including Sara Ahmed, Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, and Eman Mohammed. We hope you will as well. 

The New York Times is the paper of record — and on the record we find decades of racist obfuscation and outright lies, a safeguard of Zionist violence. We must work together to undermine its prestige and legitimacy so that the Times no longer has the power to change the story.