Gil Hoffman, a journalist for the Jerusalem Post and executive director and executive editor for HonestReporting, spoke in the Chamberlain Student Center about media bias surrounding Oct. 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in the Middle East on Nov. 4.
Having eaten falafel, pita, hummus, and other foods, students and members of organizations such as the Jewish Community Relations Council of South Jersey (JCRC) and Chabad at Rowan, sat as Chabad co-director Rabbi Hersh Loschak introduced Hoffman.
Introductions were short, and Hoffman began at the podium, cracking jokes and then talking about when he was a child growing up in America to Israeli parents.
“As a kid, maybe if I would have watched cartoons instead of the news, I’d be a healthier person today,” said Hoffman. “But still, it got me close to what was happening. So far away, but very much in our hearts.”
After graduating from Northwestern University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a job at the Jerusalem Post, serving as chief political correspondent for 24 years. Then in 2022, he became executive director and executive editor of HonestReporting. He is an accomplished journalist and speaker, being the only Israeli speaker to speak in all 50 states.
HonestReporting is an organization that seeks “to ensure truth, integrity, and fairness, and to combat ideological prejudice in journalism and the media, as it impacts Israel,” as stated on their about page. They do this by “exposing” bias, inaccurate information, or affiliates of news organizations that may have anti-Semitic sentiments.
A media watchdog, HonestReporting has exposed many activities through the years since its founding in 2000, such as a CNN freelance producer who made a tweet with the hashtag #teamHitler, and a freelance journalist who worked with the New York Times that called for the extermination of Jews. News organizations cut ties with both of them.
HonestReporting is not without its criticism, however. The Associated Press wrote an article in November 2023, detailing how the organization raised questions about photojournalists being involved with Hamas during the Oct. 7 attacks.
The question was of freelance photographers who had gotten to the scenes of the attacks quickly as if they knew it would happen beforehand. The New York Times and other organizations denied prior knowledge of the attacks and defended most of the photographers. HonestReporting accepted the organizations’ claims.
One of the outliers is Hassan Eslaiah, a freelance photographer that organizations cut ties with around the time HonestReporting posted a photo of Eslaiah being kissed by the late Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar. Hoffman talked about Eslaiah and Mohammad Fayq Abu Mostafa, who urged Palestinians to go into Israel in a video (Reuters used some photos of his, and haven’t since the video came out).
Hoffman also showed the photo that started HonestReporting. An image of a bloody child and a police officer standing over him “menacingly.”
The photograph was said to be a Palestinian kid being beaten by Israeli police, when in fact, the kid was a Jewish college student from Chicago, Tuvia Grossman, and the police officer, Gidon Tzefadi, saved Grossman’s life from his Palestinian attackers.
“So everything in that picture was wrong,” Hoffman said. “And there’s a lot that they get wrong in the media that causes a lot of problems.”
Continuing his talk, Hoffman stated the importance of the Oct. 7 attacks’ effects in the media and on Jewish people around the world.
“So even though HonestReporting has been around for 24 years, it was really created on Oct. 7 of last year and since then,” said Hoffman.
Hoffman went into detail about what happened on Oct. 7, 2023.
According to Britannica, the Israel Defense Forces were scarce on the southern border with Gaza when the attack happened. Thousands of rockets were fired, around 1,200 people were killed, and 240 were taken hostage. People were violated, and it was the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.
There have been exchanges of rockets and ground assaults since that day. Strikes and attacks were still happening around the Middle East, in Israel, Gaza, and Lebanon on Monday, and continue as the war progresses.
Hoffman spoke at length about Oct. 7, and his experiences traveling to and working in the Gaza Strip over his career.
“And I’ll tell you what the people of Gaza wanted me to tell you,” Hoffman said. “They want Hamas out. They want to be able to live good lives like you live over here.”
According to Deutsche Welle (DW), around a quarter of Palestinian poll respondents had “positive feelings” about Hamas. Most Palestinians would agree that Hamas is not great for them.
Off the battlefield, Hoffman talked about the university battleground. He referred to the encampments that swept the country in spring.
Rowan University had no serious encampments, but smaller protests and events from both sides of the aisle.
In closing, Hoffman hoped that the war would end soon.
“This war, unfortunately, to remove all that terror infrastructure in Lebanon and in Gaza, it’s close to 400 days,” Hoffman said. “But it will end soon. And of course, it took that long.”
After the talk, Hoffman took a few questions and left for a flight.
Kevin Jenner, Rowan Hillel’s president, enjoyed the talk and emphasized that he wants tolerance.
“We want no hate on this campus,” Jenner said.
Adrienne Brookstein, a Rowan alumna and Doctorate student in criminology at Temple, came to listen to Hoffman to aid with a project about the rise in hate crimes after Oct. 7.
“I appreciated his [Hoffman] insights on the lack of uniform reporting,” Brookstein said.
Brookstein found, like the Anti-Defamation League in the aftermath of Oct. 7, 2023, that anti-Semitic incidents had risen substantially.
“It’s [Jews] the most targeted group in the world,” Brookstein said.
There has been a rise in both anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim discrimination since 2021, but a sharper increase for anti-Jewish, according to the Pew Research Center.
JCRC executive director Sabrina Spector also enjoyed the talk.
“Media bias is definitely one of the biggest challenges we have,” Spector said. She hopes students will “take a step back” when reading the news and evaluating sources.
As the war stands, Israel was given a “fail” in humanitarian aid to Gaza, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Monday at a department press briefing.
“They have failed – I said they have failed to implement all of the things that we recommended in that letter,” Miller said.
Casualties in Gaza and the West Bank have reached over 100,000 injured and over 40,000 killed, according to the World Health Organization.
Al-Jazeera reported recently over 3,000 deaths in Lebanon from Israeli strikes since Oct. 7. The United Nations-related International Organization for Migration reported in late October that there were over 1,800 deaths.
Al-Jazeera also reported over 1,100 Israeli deaths and over 8,000 injured, including the Oct. 7 attacks. ABC and its source, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have similar findings.
“You can live in a country and write objectively about what’s going on in your country,” Hoffman said. “You can be pro-Israel, but when it comes to reporting about internal issues in Israel, be objective while still being a patriot of your country. You can be pro-America, live in America, and report critically.”
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