[link removed]

FAIR
View article on FAIR's website ([link removed])
How NYT Reports on Weaponized Famine So You Don't Have to Give a Damn Janine Jackson ([link removed])


WHO: People in Gaza starving, sick and dying as aid blockade continues

The World Health Organization (5/12/25 ([link removed]) ) "calls for the protection of health care and for an immediate end to the aid blockade, which is starving people, obstructing their right to health, and robbing them of dignity and hope."

More than two months ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced ([link removed]) a complete blockade of aid—including food, water and medical supplies—from entering the besieged Gaza strip. It’s a severe escalation of Israel’s now 19-month genocide ([link removed]) against Palestinians in Gaza—and what the World Health Organization (5/12/25 ([link removed]) ) has described as “one of the world’s worst hunger crises, unfolding in real time.”

With no replenishing stock, aid groups have begun running out of supplies to distribute to families in need.

The UN Relief and Works Agency (5/16/25 ([link removed]) ) reports that their “flour and food parcels have run out,” and that “one third of essential medical supplies are already out of stock.” More than a week ago, World Central Kitchen reported ([link removed]) that they no longer have supplies to cook hot meals and bake bread for starving families—they’ve since repurposed ([link removed]) their pots to distribute filtered water.

With Gaza’s entire population ([link removed]) experiencing crisis-level food insecurity, and with three-quarters facing “emergency” or “catastrophic” levels ([link removed]) of deprivation, the famine has been recognized ([link removed]) by Human Rights Watch interim executive director Federico Borello as “a tool of extermination.”


** 'To pressure Hamas'
------------------------------------------------------------
NYT: Israel Faces World Court Hearings Over Gaza Aid

The New York Times' online headline (4/28/25 ([link removed]) ) reduces the prospect of mass starvation to the innocuous phrase "Gaza aid."

At first glance, the April 29 New York Times offered what many would call an objective account with the headline: “UN Faults Israel Over Blockade of Aid for Gaza” (web version here: 4/28/25 ([link removed]) ).

A closer look at the piece however, reveals the Times’ usual spinelessness in its Gaza coverage, unquestioningly accepting Israeli framing in its supposed right to carry out its ongoing genocide.

Reporter Aaron Boxerman ([link removed]) writes up top:

For more than a month and a half, Israel has blocked food, medicine and other relief from entering the devastated Gaza Strip in an attempt to pressure Hamas to free the dozens of remaining Israeli hostages there. It argues that its blockade is lawful and that Gaza has enough provisions despite the restrictions.

That frame looks like a simple sentence, but note that it tacitly requires you to accept that Israel determines whether people in the Gaza Strip can receive the basics for human life—asking why Israel is in charge of Palestinians’ food and medicine is beyond this conversation’s walls.

Then, without even a comma, we are told that the denial of life to all Gazans is “an attempt to pressure Hamas ([link removed]) ”—Boxerman makes a silent skip over the acceptability of collective punishment ([link removed]) there, and a frictionless transmission of Israel’s rationale for its actions. That Israel has itself deprioritized ([link removed]) the release of the hostages vis-à-vis the reoccupation of Gaza is off the page. But that Israel "argues" the blockade is lawful and that Gaza has what we’re told to accept as “enough provisions”? Those are statements that the Times suggests can stand alone.


** Who you choose to believe
------------------------------------------------------------
"Lining up for food at a charity kitchen in Jabaliya, Gaza, this month." Photo by Saher Alghorra for the New York Times

The New York Times (4/28/25 ([link removed]) ) describes the relationship between Israel, which has announced a policy of starving millions of people, and the UN, which is trying to force Israel to allow food aid into Gaza, as "fraught with mutual recrimination."

But aha, you say, here comes another view—though it’s already set up by being in the responsive, “others differ” position:

The United Nations and aid groups say the blockade has further harmed Palestinians already reeling from more than a year and a half of war in Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced well over a million and leveled large swaths of the enclave's cities.

While true, and ostensibly sympathetic, what with the reeling and the leveling, notice how this is not a direct response to the claims in the lead: that the blockade is lawful, and that Gaza has all it needs. It’s just a statement that the people of Gaza have suffered tremendously. And that even that is just a thing the UN and aid groups “say.”

You could tighten this all to the NBC News headline (4/17/25 ([link removed]) ) Belén Fernández clocked in her piece on coverage of Israel's starvation of Gaza (FAIR.org, 4/25/25 ([link removed]) ): "Aid Groups Describe Dire Conditions in Gaza as Israel Says There Is No Shortage of Aid."

All of this depends on who you choose to believe, seems to be elite media’s message—with a few winky-wink tips on who to believe.

Boxerman goes on to report:

Ordinary Gazans have lamented the rising price of basic commodities under the pressure of the blockade. In some cases, the restrictions have turned the quest for getting enough nutritious food into a daily struggle.

It’s like an unfunny game of "find the qualifier": What’s an “ordinary” Gazan, and who are the extraordinary ones who deserve to starve? What defines the “some cases”? Is un-nutritious food freely available? When does a “quest” become a “struggle”?

It’s a perverse way to describe a situation where widespread starvation is not looming or imminent, but well underway. But it’s an excellent way to tell people they don’t necessarily, if you look at it a certain way, need to give a damn.
------------------------------------------------------------

ACTION ALERT: You can send a message to the New York Times at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) or via Bluesky: @NYTimes.com ([link removed]) . Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective. Feel free to leave a copy of your message in the comments thread here.

Research assistance: Wilson Korik


Read more ([link removed])

Share this post: <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="[link removed]" title="Twitter"><img border="0" height="15" width="15" src="[link removed]" title="Twitter" alt="Twitter" class="mc-share"></a>
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="[link removed]" title="Facebook"><img border="0" height="15" width="15" src="[link removed]" title="Facebook" alt="Facebook" class="mc-share"></a>
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="[link removed]" title="Pinterest"><img border="0" height="15" width="15" src="[link removed]" title="Pinterest" alt="Pinterest" class="mc-share"></a>
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="[link removed]" title="LinkedIn"><img border="0" height="15" width="15" src="[link removed]" title="LinkedIn" alt="LinkedIn" class="mc-share"></a>
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="[link removed]" title="Google Plus"><img border="0" height="15" width="15" src="[link removed]" title="Google Plus" alt="Google Plus" class="mc-share"></a>
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="[link removed]" title="Instapaper"><img border="0" height="15" width="15" src="[link removed]" title="Instapaper" alt="Instapaper" class="mc-share"></a>
​

© 2021 Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting. All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you signed up for email alerts from
Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting

Our mailing address is:
FAIRNESS & ACCURACY IN REPORTING
124 W. 30th Street, Suite 201
New York, NY 10001

FAIR's Website ([link removed])

FAIR counts on your support to do this work — please donate today ([link removed]) .

Follow us on Twitter ([link removed]) | Friend us on Facebook ([link removed])

change your preferences ([link removed])
Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp
[link removed]
unsubscribe ([link removed]) .