What Israel, Pro-Israeli Organizations Aim to Achieve from Vilifying the Palestine Chronicle – Factsheet

June 21, 2024 Articles, Features
Hundreds of journalists have been killed in Gaza since October 7. (Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, Palestine Chronicle)

The Palestine Chronicle calls on all media outlets to cease their per se defamation and harassment of the Palestine Chronicle and its team – and calls on government authorities to investigate and stop threats made to the lives and safety of PC staff and their relatives.

The Palestine Chronicle holds liable all parties who have defamed the Palestine Chronicle and mobilized hate against the Palestine Chronicle for any harm that may come as a result of this coordinated hate campaign. 

The call followed what seems to be a well-coordinated campaign, involving far-right European groups and pro-Israeli US-based activists, making unfounded accusations against the Palestine Chronicle and its staff. Mobilizing in sensational lies and anti-Palestinian racism, the campaign appears to be an extension of efforts to endanger, dehumanize, and expand the circumference of violence against Palestinians and those who elevate their voices. The campaign also appears to be an extension of Israeli efforts to erase, demonize and justify the unprecedented slaughter of Palestinian journalists.

The campaign started on June 9, a day after an Israeli military operation was carried out in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, with the declared aim of rescuing captives held by Palestinian groups in the area. 

The rescue mission has succeeded in releasing four captives, though it came at the price of killing 274 Palestinian civilians and wounding 800 more. Three other captives, including a US citizen, were also killed by the Israeli military itself, according to a statement by Hamas.

The official Israeli version of the story changed throughout the following days regarding where the captives were held exactly, by whom, and under what conditions. 

A major component of the Israeli narrative, however, seemed to focus on a freelance Palestinian journalist, Abdallah Aljamal, and his family – including his father, Dr. Ahmed Aljamal, and his wife, Fatima – who were, according to EuroMed Human Rights Monitor, executed in front of their children by Israeli forces, which invaded their flat on the first floor of one of the raided buildings. 

The Israeli army, without providing any evidence, according to CNN, accused Aljamal’s family of holding an Israeli captive, former Israeli Navy officer Noa Argamani.

Quickly, the story shifted to claiming that the family had held three others, not Argamani. 

Footage released by the Israeli military, however, showed that the apartment, supposedly where the hostages were held, was in fact not that of the Aljamal family, according to the EuroMed Monitor.

As Israeli government and military sources continued to promote what seemed to be a false narrative regarding what had taken place in Nuseirat on that day, an international campaign involving well-known pro-Israel and far-right individuals and organizations began promoting the idea that Aljamal was the one in fact holding the hostages.

Worse, they went as far as accusing Al Jazeera and The Palestine Chronicle of ‘hiring’ the supposed hostage taker, Abdallah Aljamal.

Eventually, the campaign, which continued to grow in right-wing media in the US, for example, the New York Post and the Free Beacon, along with right-wing Israeli newspapers, shifted towards a different focus: calling for the stripping of the Palestine Chronicle of its tax-exempt status. 

Al Jazeera quickly declared that Aljamal did not work for the media news network. Despite Al Jazeera having distanced itself from the Palestinian journalist, numerous accounts of Twitter users with Arabic names began making claims that they had, in fact, worked with Aljamal at Al Jazeera. 

Of course, none of this is true as Aljamal merely contributed research to an article that was published by Al Jazeera in 2019.

The attacks on the Palestine Chronicle seemed to focus on defaming 501-C3 educational institutions and charities that advocate the rights of the Palestinian people. 

The attacks included unfounded accusations that Aljamal was officially hired as a staff member of the Palestine Chronicle. 

Palestine Chronicle journalism is largely focused on giving a voice to ordinary people in Gaza who, otherwise, are usually muted in mainstream media, and even in some pan-Arab media outlets. 

To do so, the newspaper has been giving space to young journalists and writers to highlight the voices of their community members, especially those who have witnessed the most horrific episodes of the Israeli genocide in the Strip. 

Abdallah Aljamal was one of the people who highlighted the voices of his community. He often circulated interviews he took with eyewitnesses to the Israeli genocide and pitched the interview, i.e. the words of others in his community, for publication. The Palestine Chronicle and other English and Arabic news outlets used his interviews, often with the same interviewee. Aljamal did not provide analytical or op-ed pieces, he was not an official staff member of the Palestine Chronicle, nor did he charge for his contributions during the war. His stories consisted only of reports and testimonies from Palestinian victims who have lost their homes or loved ones in Gaza. 

Though the Palestine Chronicle made that very clear in an initial statement issued on the subject, the defamation campaign insisted that Aljamal was a staff member of the Palestine Chronicle. 

Abdallah Aljamal (1987-2024) – Well-Known Journalist Murdered in Gaza

To avoid further harassment of and threats to its editors and board members, the Palestine Chronicle was forced to make the decision to remove some of these names from our ‘About Us’ section. 

Below is a tentative timeline of what has taken place following the massacre of Nuseirat, with embedded tweets and links to some of the individuals, organizations and entities that have been feeding the defamatory campaign.

A Timeline

Saturday, June 8

– Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari announces the rescue of the captives. 

– In an attempt to justify the mass killing of civilians, the official account of the State of Israel run by the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs shares a post allegedly previously shared on a “Hamas Telegram group”, claiming that “the Israeli prisoners which were released a short while ago were being held by civilians, not by the Al-Qassam Brigades.”

– On the evening of June 8, Ramy Abdu, chairman of EuroMed Monitor, exposes on X Israel’s field executions during the operation. Per the estimation of Palestine Chronicle editors, this is the first time Abdallah Aljamal’s name has been made public.

Abdu wrote:

“In an initial testimony documenting the killings committed by the Israeli army in the Nuseirat camp today, the @EuroMedHR  reported that the Israeli army used a ladder to enter the home of Dr. Ahmed Al-Jamal. The army immediately executed 36-year-old Fatima Al-Jamal upon encountering her on the staircase. The forces then stormed the house and executed her husband, journalist Abdullah Al-Jamal, 36, and his father, Dr. Ahmed, 74, in front of his grandchildren. The army also shot their daughter, Zainab, 27, who sustained serious injuries.”

– A few hours later, soon after midnight of June 9, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth cites unnamed Arab media – without providing official sources- and claims Aljamal was “an Al-Jazeera cameraman”. It also cites an alleged “Open Source Intelligence Monitor” as claiming on X that he was “a Photojournalist and Writer/Editor for both Al-Jazeera and the Palestinian Chronicle (the name of the Palestine Chronicle is here misspelled by the supposed ‘intelligence monitor’)”. 

Sunday, June 9

– On the morning of June 9, pro-Israeli journalist Eitan Fishberger, known for his attacks on several pro-Palestine social media channels, retweeted Ramy Abdu’s tweet deliberately manipulating the information and linking Aljamal to the captives. He also wonders whether “a journalist working for the US-bazed (sic!) organization, The Palestine Chronicle” was “helping hold Israelis hostages in Gaza”.

Fishberger was not the only one. Similar posts emerged at around the same time, suggesting that a well-coordinated social media campaign was underway.

– For example, Leslie Kajomowitz – who writes in her X bio that she has been working for international news for the last 20 years – claimed that the chairman of Euromed Monitor had confirmed “that hostages were kept in private homes and that those holding them hostage were Dr. Ahmed Al-Jamal and his son, journalist Abdallah Al-Jamal, for the Palestine Chronicle.”

The allegation was entirely fabricated as neither Abdu’s post made that statement nor even the insinuation that Mr. Aljamal was holding any hostages, nor did he mention the Palestine Chronicle in his post. 

– At around 10 AM, a similar post is shared by Visegrad24 Twitter account and reaches 2.4 million people.

According to Alan Macleod, writing for the well-respected progressive news outlet Mintpress, the account “has consistently shared blatantly false information in an attempt to ramp up support for the state of Israel’s crimes in Gaza. Worse still, the semi-anonymous account pushing a far-right agenda worldwide is known to be funded by the deeply conservative Polish government.”

The post falsely claims that “Israeli hostage Noa Argamani was being held in the house of Al Jazeera journalist Abdallah Aljamal”. This is untrue even by the standards of the Israeli account of the tragic events of that day.

– Six minutes after this tweet, a comment was posted by Eitan Fishberger, who retweeted his post, falsely claiming that Mr. Aljamal was a Palestine Chronicle employee.

– At around 11 am (Palestine time) on Sunday, June 9, a no-vax, conservative journalist, accused of spreading rumors, branding them as “news”, named Jordan Schachtel, claimed, with no evidence nor sources whatsoever, that Mr. Aljamal was a staffer at the Palestine Chronicle and that he “took” three hostages.  

-Schachtel also contacted the members of the Palestine Chronicle board of directors with a provocative email/message. 

– Only in the afternoon of Sunday, the above-mentioned Israeli Foreign Ministry-linked X account connected Aljamal to the captives, reiterating the fake news (even by Israeli accounts) that he was allegedly holding Noa Argamani and claiming that Aljamal had “served as the spokesperson of the Hamas Ministry of Labor”, citing unspecified “sources in Gaza”.

Despite reports by US mainstream media that began emerging, raising doubts about the official Israeli narrative, and despite a statement released by the Palestine Chronicle and clarifying our relationship with Mr. Aljamal, the propaganda machine did not stop. 

The Palestine Chronicle mailbox was inundated by provocative messages sent by ultra-conservative news outlets or self-proclaimed journalists.

The  Palestine Chronicle received messages from the New York Post, the Dispatch, Fox News, among others. Most interesting, however, is that the text of most of these messages seems to be consistent, often ending with asking the same accusatory question, suggesting that the original source of this campaign is the same.

One individual named Ari Hoffman, who hosts the Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI, sent various messages and spread fabricated news on his X account, calling the Palestine Chronicle’s editor-in-chief Dr. Ramzy Baroud “a mouthpiece for Islamic terror”. Ironically, the main editors of the Palestine Chronicle have often been affiliated with socialist ideas, values and news organizations.

Such a campaign eventually culminated in an outright call by two Congressmen, Missouri Rep. Jason Smith and member of the United States House of Representatives for Oklahoma, Kevin Hern, calling on the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) to revoke the tax-exempt status from the Palestine Chronicle.

Rep. Jason Smith, a stalwart conservative, has been accused of racist and biased remarks in the past. For example, in 2019, he apologized to Democratic Rep. Tony Cárdenas for yelling “Go back to Puerto Rico!” during a tense episode on the House floor. 

Smith is also very well connected with the pro-Israel lobby in the United States and particularly with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which publicly thanked him on April 24 for his stance in support of Israel.

Both Jason Smith and Kevin Hern were officially endorsed by AIPAC.

According to AIPAC Tracker, Rep. Jason Smith collected nearly $63,000 from AIPAC.

For his part, Hern was accused of being a leading figure in the attempts to overturn the results of the US presidential election of 2020.

Ultimately, the campaign targeting the Palestine Chronicle morphed to become that of abuse and direct threats against Palestine Chronicle editors and their families.

For example, the home address of the Palestine Chronicle editor was shared publicly online, with violent insinuations. 

The individuals and organizations involved in the defamation were all the usual suspects in anti-Palestinian, Arab and Muslim campaigns across the United States and other Western countries. 

This is not the first time that campaigns of this nature have been mounted against voices that demand the respect of international and humanitarian laws in Palestine. 

However, the focus of the latest campaign seems to carry a larger meaning, namely the defamation of tax-exempt organizations, the distraction from the Israeli massacres in Nuseirat and elsewhere in the Gaza Strip.

What is Al-Ahli Hospital that Israel has Just Bombed in Gaza? – EXPLAINER

It must be said that the latest vilification campaign, along with lies and misinformation disseminated by Israel and its supporters in the US and other Western countries, is consistent with the trajectory of lies and deception that has accompanied this war from the very start. 

Aside from the long-debunked claims about decapitated babies and mass rapes on October 7, almost every single Israeli propaganda campaign against Palestinian individuals, organizations or specific events that took place in Gaza since the start of the war, has proven to be untrue.

The most obvious examples are Israeli claims regarding the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital Massacre, the massacre, destruction and mass killing at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the execution of civilians, the deliberate targeting of UN-run schools, and much more.

The latest campaign concerning the Al-Nuseirat massacre is clearly aimed at vilifying independent Palestinian media and journalists, whether in Gaza, the US or elsewhere.

It appears to be a justification for the slaughter of journalists and their families, who have been the target of Israeli forces since the very start of the war. Journalists are entitled to protection under international humanitarian law, therefore targeted attacks and killings of journalists amount to war crimes, the UN experts reiterated on June 2. In total disregard of international norms, Israel has so far killed 152 journalists in Gaza, and often defamed them, accusing them of being “terrorists”, as in the case of Al-Jazeera journalist and cameraman Hamza al-Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya, who were assassinated last January.

In this context, even the attack against an independent Palestinian platform, such as The Palestine Chronicle, can be interpreted as an attack on any outlet that focuses on the Palestinian voices and narrative. This, too, is but an extension of, and not just a cover for, genocide by the same powers who are egging the genocide along. 

The Palestine Chronicle reiterates its call on US authorities to investigate this hate campaign and to provide needed assurances and protection to Palestine Chronicle editors and their families. 

Below is a selection from a long list of articles that shared fake or unsubstantiated information regarding the Palestine Chronicle and its relationship with Mr. Aljamal:

  • https://nypost.com/2024/06/17/world-news/gaza-reporter-abdallah-aljamal-worked-for-us-non-profit/
  • https://nypost.com/2024/06/09/world-news/gaza-journalist-held-3-hostages-in-his-home-with-his-family-israeli-military-says/
  • https://www.israelhayom.com/2024/06/09/idf-confirms-al-jazeeras-al-jamal-held-3-of-rescued-captives/
  • https://www.meforum.org/65978/abdallah-aljamal-prisoners-rights-activist-held
  • https://jewishchronicle.timesofisrael.com/journalist-doctor-held-israelis-hostage-in-gaza/
  • https://jewishchronicle.timesofisrael.com/journalist-doctor-held-israelis-hostage-in-gaza/
  • https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-805525
  • https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-hamas-terrorist-and-journalist-was-holding-3-hostages-in-home-alongside-family/
  • https://www.foxnews.com/politics/house-republican-demands-action-against-us-nonprofit-whose-journalist-held-israeli-hostages-gaza-home
  • https://lynnwoodtimes.com/2024/06/10/palestine-chronicle/
  • https://victorygirlsblog.com/the-palestine-chronicle-attempts-to-lessen-its-terror-connections/
  • https://freebeacon.com/national-security/irans-ties-to-the-palestine-chronicle/
  • https://freebeacon.com/media/gop-senators-press-irs-to-revoke-tax-exempt-status-of-palestine-chronicle-nonprofit-tied-to-hamas-hostage-taker/
  • https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/gaza-journalist-kept-hostages-in-his-home-before-being-killed-in-israeli-raid/articleshow/110881615.cms

(The Palestine Chronicle)

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(The Palestine Chronicle is a registered 501(c)3 organization, thus, all donations are tax deductible.)
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7 Comments

  1. I’m sorry you are going through this. Why dont you go on the offensive and send legal letters for defamation and/or racially motivated attacks to any organisation /individual that is smearing you?

    I love reading your newsletters, please do continue!

  2. Stay strong my friends, the more the pro-Is lobby knows they are losing, the harder /nastier they will fight. Your journalism is important, free press is foundational to democracy and justice. Keep fighting the good fight. Peace to you and to Palestine.

  3. ‘There can’t be democracy and colonial war; one aspires to decency, the other to fascism. Meanwhile, once welcomed mavericks are heretics now in an underground of journalism amid a landscape of mendacious conformity….The Palestinians are Spartacus. People who fill the streets with flags and principle and solidarity are Spartacus. We are all Spartacus if we want to be.’
    John Pilger.

  4. One thing you might find useful – get in touch with journalism lecturers etc, at universities, and ask if they want a case to illustrate both scams and disinformation for their students. Because this case fits both the definitions of scam and disinformation. And I don’t know how happy people will be to support alleged “media” outfits indulging in scamming their readers with disinformation.

  6. When I look up the word courage in the dictionary,it simply says Palestinians. In my heart I am Palestinian…………

  7. When food is an obstacle to genocide, aid workers must be targeted. When healthcare is an obstacle to genocide, doctors must be targeted. When truth is an obstacle to genocide, reporters must be targeted.

    Thank you for your work.

Comments are closed.