Three New York Times stories focused on Gaza

The US news media flits from story to story, seemingly incapable of sustaining attention on events that require it. The nightmare of Gaza which received in-depth treatment for over a year has now faded from view, eclipsed by other dramatic developments in the Arab East. 

In recent weeks, news out of the Middle East has been dominated by Israel’s devastating attacks on Lebanon and the now Israeli-enforced “ceasefire”. Now, the major reporting has turned to the Al Qaeda spin-off, Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, capturing major Syrian cities.  

While these developments are, of course, consequential, the continuing war on Gaza and its lingering wounds deserve our attention. 

Against this backdrop, it was notable that on a single day this week The New York Times carried three stories, filling a full page and a half, on the continuing nightmare in Gaza. One was on Amnesty International’s new report charging Israel with genocide in Gaza, and another on a deadly Israeli strike ona “humanitarian zone” in Gaza. The largest was: “For the disabled, life in Gaza was always a struggle. Now it’s agony” . Combined, the three describe the horrors of Gaza’s last 14 months, continuing bombings on displaced Palestinians, and the agonising future before them. 

The Amnesty International story was significant for several reasons. First,  it’s the world’s preeminent human rights organisation. When I served as a presidential appointee to a US commission focused on religious freedom, our annual reports and investigations relied heavily on Amnesty’s work, as does the State Department. Whether dealing with countries in Africa, Asia, or the Arab World, attention is given to Amnesty’s assessments. Countries are routinely denounced for abusive behaviors with the notation “as Amnesty International has reported”, with one exception, of course—Israel. Amnesty’s work everywhere is revered, but when it’s about Israel, it’s reviled. 

It's therefore quite consequential that Amnesty boldly declared that “Israel committed, and is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza”. They continue: “Israel’s unlawful conduct throughout its military offensive, resulted in unprecedented harm to Palestinians in Gaza that resulted in the massive scale of killings and serious injuries over a short period of time.” 

Responding to these charges, the Israelis have followed their familiar script—“lie, deny, and obfuscate” —and ultimately falling back on charging their accusers with bias. Interestingly, to date, there’s been little or no response from officials in Washington. 

That was not the case back in 2022 when Amnesty International and another prominent human rights organisation, Human Rights Watch, issued reports finding that Israel had imposed an apartheid system on the Palestinian people under their control. Congress and the White House were quick to denounce both human rights groups—upon whom they rely so heavily for information on other countries. 

Notably, neither the Washington Post nor the New York Times even carried the story about the apartheid charges. This genocide report, on the other hand, has received major coverage in both papers. 

The story of the Israeli air strike in al Mawasi, in a humanitarian shelter zone where Palestinians ordered by Israel to evacuate other areas were supposed to be safe, was both cruel and deadly. Bombings of this sort are a daily occurrence, but rarely receive coverage. 

Most disturbing was the piece about the plight of the disabled in Gaza. Before this war disabled persons in Gaza numbered 56,000; that’s surely increased significantly in the past year. The Times story includes pictures of children without limbs lacking wheelchairs, rehabilitation facilities, or surgery when needed. It describes in detail the agony of a disabled Palestinian in Gaza who simply needs a bathroom though none can accommodate a wheelchair. 

The faces of these children in the rubble of destroyed neighbourhoods is heartbreaking. They are innocents without a future. Living in crowded tent areas through winter or in the remains of buildings on a bombed-out street—this is life for hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children. 

Facing human suffering is painful. But we must, especially in the case of Gaza, because we Americans are partially responsible for it. 

Just because it’s disappeared from the front pages doesn’t mean it’s not happening. It is ongoing. So it’s important that the New York Times brought it home to us one day this week.

The writer is president of the Washington-based Arab-American Institute