[News] NY Times tries to cover up its 7 October "mass rapes" fraud

[Anti-Imperialist News]

electronicintifada.net
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/ny-times-tries-cover-its-7-october-mass-rapes-fraud>
NY Times tries to cover up its 7 October "mass rapes" fraud

Ali Abunimah <https://electronicintifada.net/people/ali-abunimah> Media
Watch <https://electronicintifada.net/blog/media-watch> 6 February 2024
------------------------------

The fallout has been growing from the so-called investigation by *The New
York Times* into alleged mass rapes of Israeli women by Hamas fighters on 7
October – as I discuss with my colleague Nora Barrows-Friedman in the video
above.

As The Electronic Intifada has reported
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/mass-rape-accusation>, Israel’s
sensational claims are not backed by any substantial evidence.

Rather, the lurid allegations of sexual violence appear calculated to
demonize Palestinians and justify or distract from Israel’s genocide in
Gaza.

Yet mainstream media and politicians continue to disseminate this atrocity
propaganda without regard for the obvious holes in the Israeli narrative.

The *Times* article, published in late December
<https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/28/world/middleeast/oct-7-attacks-hamas-israel-sexual-violence.html>,
gave added credence to these claims, especially since its lead writer was
Jeffrey Gettleman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter.

But as we demonstrated
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/watch-ny-times-investigation-mass-rape-hamas-falls-apart>,
it is a journalistic fraud.

Members of the family of Gal Abdush, the deceased woman portrayed by
Gettleman as a victim of the alleged “broad pattern” of sexual violence
have repudiated the article
<https://mondoweiss.net/2024/01/family-of-key-case-in-new-york-times-october-7-sexual-violence-report-renounces-story-says-reporters-manipulated-them/>
and accused the *Times* of misleading and manipulating them. They say there
is no evidence that Abdush was raped.

Gettleman also relied extensively for “evidence” on ZAKA, an extremist
Jewish group that collects bodies and body parts for burial, and whose
leaders have fabricated
<https://mondoweiss.net/2023/12/zaka-is-not-a-trustworthy-source-for-allegations-of-sexual-violence-on-october-7/>
numerous accounts of atrocities from 7 October.

A recent investigation
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-01-31/ty-article-magazine/.premium/death-and-donations-did-the-volunteer-group-handling-the-october-7-dead-exploit-its-role/0000018d-5a73-d997-adff-df7bdb670000>
by Israel’s *Haaretz* newspaper accuses ZAKA of using bodies of people
killed on 7 October as props for fundraising and that as part of its effort
“to get media exposure, ZAKA spread accounts of atrocities that never
happened, released sensitive and graphic photos, and acted unprofessionally
on the ground.”
Now some of Gettleman’s colleagues at the *Times* are also raising
questions, wary of being caught in yet another of the newspaper of record’s
notorious journalistic scandals.

On 28 January, *The Intercept* revealed
<https://theintercept.com/2024/01/28/new-york-times-daily-podcast-camera/>
that the *Times* pulled a high-profile episode of its podcast *The Daily*
<https://www.nytimes.com/column/the-daily> that was based on Gettleman’s
mass rapes article.

The decision not to air the episode was taken “amid a furious internal
debate about the strength of the paper’s original reporting on the
subject,” according to *The Intercept*.

The episode was supposed to go out on 9 January but as criticism of
Gettleman’s reporting grew internally and externally, *The Daily* shelved
the original script and put the episode on hold.

A new script was drafted, one that according to *The Intercept*, “allowed
for uncertainty, and asked open-ended questions that were absent from the
original article.”

But even that new script “remains the subject of significant controversy”
within the *Times* newsroom and has yet to air. Some *New York Times*
staffers fear “another *Caliphate*-level journalistic debacle,” *The
Intercept* reports.

That’s a reference to the 2018 multipart podcast *Caliphate*, which the
*Times* had to retract
<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/18/world/middleeast/caliphate-chaudhry-hoax.html>
after it turned out that the main character – a Canadian Muslim claiming to
have been a former ISIS fighter in Syria – had fabricated his entire story.

But rather than learning the lessons from this – or its false reporting
<https://fair.org/home/20-years-later-nyt-still-cant-face-its-iraq-war-shame/>
on Iraqi “weapons of mass destruction” that helped pave the way for the
2003 US-led war of aggression against Iraq – the *Times* leadership appears
to be doubling down.

“There seems to be no self-awareness at the top,” one *Times* staffer told *The
Intercept*.

The newspaper’s editors allowed Gettleman to publish a follow-up article on
29 January
<https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/29/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-sexual-violence-un.html>,
in an attempt to patch up his original story.

As I explain in the video above – a segment from The Electronic
Intifada’s livestream
of 31 January
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/day-117-roundtable-famine-gaza-unrwa-funding-slashed>
– Gettleman fails to address the criticisms of his story.

Instead he spins, distorts and provides new claims that lack any
credibility – anything but take responsibility for his egregious
malpractice and spreading of atrocity propaganda.
The strategy of doubling down on lies seems to be paying off for him. On 9
February, Gettleman is set to speak at a seminar hosted by former secretary
of state Hillary Clinton at Columbia University, titled “Preventing and
Addressing Conflict-Related Sexual Violence
<https://igp.sipa.columbia.edu/events/conflict-related-sexual-violence>.”

In 2011, Hillary Clinton’s State Department disseminated false claims
<https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna42824884> that Libyan forces had been given
the drug Viagra so that they could carry out mass rapes as a weapon for war.

These fabrications were part of the Obama administration’s push to justify
the US military intervention that overthrew the country’s leader Muammar
Gaddafi and, among other things, turned Libya into a haven for human
trafficking
<https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/07/libya-un-experts-alarmed-reports-trafficking-persons-arbitrary-detention>,
including torture and sexual violence.

This week’s event at Columbia University – where Clinton now teaches – is
set to be another forum for her to spread atrocity propaganda to justify
war, this time on behalf of Israel.
Additional resources on Israel’s “mass rapes” propaganda

   -

   “CNN report claiming sexual violence on October 7 relied on non-credible
   witnesses, some with undisclosed ties to Israeli govt
   <https://mondoweiss.net/2023/12/cnn-report-claiming-sexual-violence-on-october-7-relied-on-non-credible-witnesses-some-with-undisclosed-ties-to-israeli-govt/>,”
   *Mondoweiss* (1 December 2023)
   -

   “Watch: Debunking Israel’s “mass rape” propaganda
   <https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/watch-debunking-israels-mass-rape-propaganda>,”
   The Electronic Intifada (4 December 2023)
   -

   “Despite lack of evidence, allegations of Hamas ‘mass rape’ are fueling
   Israeli genocide in Gaza
   <https://mondoweiss.net/2023/12/despite-lack-of-evidence-allegations-of-hamas-mass-rape-are-fueling-israeli-genocide-in-gaza/>,”
   *Mondoweiss* (8 December 2023)
   -

   “ZAKA is not a trustworthy source for allegations of sexual violence on
   October 7
   <https://mondoweiss.net/2023/12/zaka-is-not-a-trustworthy-source-for-allegations-of-sexual-violence-on-october-7/>,”
   *Mondoweiss*, (30 December 2023)
   -

   “Family of key case in New York Times October 7 sexual violence report
   renounces story, says reporters manipulated them
   <https://mondoweiss.net/2024/01/family-of-key-case-in-new-york-times-october-7-sexual-violence-report-renounces-story-says-reporters-manipulated-them/>,”
   *Mondoweiss* (3 January 2024)
   -

   “Watch: NY Times ‘investigation’ of mass rape by Hamas falls apart
   <https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/watch-ny-times-investigation-mass-rape-hamas-falls-apart>,”
   The Electronic Intifada (9 January 2024)
   -

   “Screams without proof: questions for NYT about shoddy ‘Hamas mass rape’
   report
   <https://thegrayzone.com/2024/01/10/questions-nyt-hamas-rape-report/>,”
   The Grayzone (10 January 2024)
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