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FAIR
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UN Declares Genocide in Gaza While 250 US Lawmakers Are in Israel Tyler Poisson ([link removed])
CNN: UN commission says Israel is committing genocide in Gaza
Israel “shot at and killed civilians, some of whom (including children) were holding makeshift white flags,” according to the UN report (CNN, 9/17/25 ([link removed]) ). “Some children, including toddlers, were shot in the head by snipers.”
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory published a report ([link removed]) on September 16 that charged Israeli authorities and security forces with having committed, and continuing to commit, acts of genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The 72-page report, replete with 495 footnotes, was compiled by senior independent rights investigators appointed by the UN Human Rights Council. Specifically, the report concludes that Israel is responsible for committing four of the five genocidal acts defined ([link removed] on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.pdf) by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, namely:
* (i) killing members of the group;
* (ii) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
* (iii) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; and
* (iv) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.
This report brings the UN into line with leading human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch ([link removed]) , Genocide Watch ([link removed]) , Amnesty International ([link removed]) , B’Tselem ([link removed]) and Oxfam ([link removed] under international law,the International Court of Justice) , all of whom have explicitly labeled Israel’s crimes in Gaza genocidal. The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) also recently passed a resolution ([link removed]) stating that Israel’s
policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide.
The corporate press relayed the IAGS resolution to its readers and viewers with varying degrees of emphasis and efficacy. Writing for FAIR (9/4/25 ([link removed]) ), Saurav Sarkar highlighted the fact that the New York Times (9/1/25 ([link removed]) ) “buried the news in the 31st paragraph of a story headlined 'Israel’s Push for a Permanent Gaza Deal May Mean a Longer War, Experts Say.’”
Fox: Cruz slams UN's Israel ‘genocide’ charge, pushes for consequences
Fox News (9/17/25 ([link removed]) ) spun the UN report on Israeli genocide as an anti-UN story.
Corporate coverage of the United Nation's latest report was also of varying seriousness. The New York Times (9/17/25 ([link removed]) ) decided that it was appropriate to relegate the headline that “Israel Is Committing Genocide in Gaza, UN Inquiry Says” to page A8 of its print edition. Granted, the UN finding that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza was mentioned on the front page, only under the heading “Israeli Ground Forces Push Into Gaza City, Forcing Many to Flee: Assault Deepens a Humanitarian Crisis.”
ABC (9/16/25 ([link removed]) ) similarly treated the UN report as a footnote, referring to it in the final moments of a minute-and-15-second report on the assault on Gaza. Fox News (9/17/25 ([link removed]) ) covered the news in the course of rebuking the UN, going so far as to put the label of “genocide” in quotes. While the Wall Street Journal (9/16/25 ([link removed]) ) included the most recent genocide allegations as a subhead, the only mention we could find on MSNBC's website (9/18/25
([link removed]) ) came in an opinion piece headlined “The New Gaza City Offensive Is a Disaster. Trump Is Shrugging.”
The Washington Post (9/16/25 ([link removed]) ) ran a piece on its website about the UN declaration, but did not find it worth a spot in its print edition.
Some corporate outlets, such as CNN (9/17/25 ([link removed]) ) and Time (9/16/25 ([link removed]) ), have given more appropriate emphasis to the news that the world’s preeminent governing body has officially labeled what is happening in Gaza genocide, offering dedicated articles.
** 'Help spread the Israeli narrative'
------------------------------------------------------------
Jerusalem Post: Bipartisan US support reminds Israel that true friends stand by us, official tells 'Post'
Jerusalem Post (9/15/25 ([link removed]) ): "At a time when Israel faces growing isolation around the world, the largest-ever delegation of US lawmakers, representing all 50 states, arrived in Israel."
On the same day the UN released its report, approximately 250 US state legislators, representing all 50 states and both parties, were in Israel for a “50 States, One Israel" conference sponsored by the Israeli government. The Jerusalem Post (9/15/25 ([link removed]) ) characterized it as “the largest-ever delegation of US lawmakers” to Israel.
According to ethics disclosures reported in the Boston Herald (9/14/25 ([link removed]) ), Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Alan Silvia’s trip to Israel for the conference cost $6,500. The Herald said Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs would “reimburse, waive or pay for travel expenses, though it was unclear what portion of the costs the government planned to cover.”
Quoting Rep. Ilana Rubel (D-Idaho), Boise State Public Radio (9/17/25 ([link removed]) ) reported that no Idaho taxpayer funds were used to send any of five Idaho state legislatures to the conference.
The Oregon Capital Insider (9/18/25 ([link removed]) ) reported that Rep. Emily McIntire (R-Ore.) “said in an email from Israel that traveling to the country has always been a dream for her, and the trip has only solidified her support for Israel.”
In this connection, the Times of Israel (9/7/25 ([link removed]) ) was open about the purposes of the conference:
The ministry stresses the ["50 States, One Israel"] delegation’s strategic importance, noting that state legislators often influence anti-Israel bills, such as those supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Israel hopes the visitors will help block hostile legislation at the state level and promote initiatives combating antisemitism and strengthening US/Israel ties.
The visit was previously announced as part of a broader campaign launched last month to host some 400 delegations involving over 5,000 participants by year’s end, "to help spread the Israeli narrative in international media," according to the ministry.
Mondoweiss: The Shift: 50 States, One Israel
Mondoweiss (9/25/25 ([link removed]) ): "'50 States, One Israel' occurred amid growing international solidarity against the ongoing genocide in Gaza and Israel’s further isolation on the world stage."
Alert readers may have noticed that this article has only cited local, independent and Israeli sources about the “50 States, One Israel” conference. (See also Columbus Dispatch, 9/17/25 ([link removed]) ; Georgia Public Broadcasting, 9/15/25 ([link removed]) ; Mondoweiss, 9/25/25 ([link removed]) .)
At the time of this writing, the “50 States, One Israel” conference is conspicuously absent from all existing reporting on Israel in the national US corporate media. Not one major US outlet has covered the largest delegation of US state legislators to Israel. This is a startling act of omission on the part of the corporate media in the United States, and it speaks to the indispensability of local, not-for-profit, independent news.
Given that half of US voters believe that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza (Al Jazeera, 8/25/25 ([link removed]) ), it is surely in the interest of the public to know if, when, why and that their local representatives were in Israel networking with parties to what the UN has labeled a genocide.
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