Dying for Coverage

By Published On: April 30, 2009

Gaza patients protest.jpg
Gazans protest against the Hamas-Fatah rivalries which have prevented sick Palestinians from leaving the Gaza Strip for medical care (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

One year ago, the New York Times dedicated prominent news coverage to seven Fulbright scholars who could not leave Gaza to study in the United States. The coverage, including a front-page news story and a finger-wagging editorial, (erroneously) blamed Israel for the situation.

Now another group of Gaza citizens is unable to travel abroad for a pressing need — and the consequences for these people are much more dire than those of the students unable to attend prestigious programs. As reported by the AP:

Hundreds of Palestinian patients have been trapped in the Gaza Strip, unable to travel abroad for crucial treatment for cancer and other diseases, because of political infighting between Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers and their Palestinian rivals.

Eight Gazans who were waiting to travel abroad have died since the crisis began in March, when the dispute shut down a medical referral committee that helps sick residents find treatment outside of Gaza, according to the World Health Organization.

While the New York Times deemed the dubious case of the seven Fulbright students a cause celebre, the paper of record has totally ignored the Fatah-Hamas controversy which is responsible for the painful and unnecessary deaths of innocent patients desperately seeking to reach Egypt.

(Note: Prospects of recovery for sick Palestinians were also dimmed in late January, when the Palestinian Authority decided to discontinue payments to Israeli hospitals for treatments there, a development that was reported at the time by the Times. But the issue of the Hamas-Fatah disputes which has blocked the exit of Gazan patients has not been reported by the Times.)

We expose the anti-Israel lies so you don't have to. But we can't do it without your help. Join the fight -- Donate now
CAMERA logo
Tell the World – Share Now!

More from SNAPSHOTS

  • Ahed Tamimi’s Time Served Lost in Haaretz Translation

    March 28, 2018

    Last week, Ahed Tamimi, the Palestinian teen filmed while she was hitting an Israeli soldier, reached a plea agreement in which she was sentenced to eight months in prison, including three months already served, plus [...]

  • Where’s the Coverage? Thousands March Against Antisemitism in the U.K.

    March 27, 2018

    A picture of the March 26, 2018 protest before the UK Parliament. Image courtesy of The Guardian newspaper On March 26, 2018, thousands of people in the United Kingdom took to the streets to protest [...]

  • Los Angeles Times Dubs Convicted Terrorists ‘Political Prisoners’

    March 21, 2018

    Rise above the noise! Go below the surface! Enjoy top-quality reporting, enjoins a recent Los Angeles Times ad campaign. Instead, though, a recent movie review provides readers with noise instead of top-quality reporting, erroneously stating [...]

  • Haaretz Deposes Hamas in Gaza

    March 14, 2018

    A prominent pull quote in Haaretz's print edition last week ("The slow death sentence of cancer patients in Gaza," March 7, page six) states, in quotation marks: "Gaza is controlled by the Israelis, the Egyptians [...]

  • Los Angeles Times Fails to Correct on Judaism’s Holiest Site

    March 11, 2018

    The Los Angeles Times has failed to correct an article last week which misidentified the Western Wall as Judaism's holiest site. The March 4 story by Noga Tarnopolsky ("Netanyahu begins visit to U.S., putting aside [...]

  • Newsweek: Fake Traffic, Fake News

    February 27, 2018

    March 4 Update: CAMERA Prompts Newsweek, AFP Corrections on Shelved Expropriation Bill Earlier this month, Newsweek fired senior editors and reporters after they reported on accusations that Newsweek Media Group had purchased fraudulent web traffic [...]

  • Where’s the Coverage? Israel Thwarts an ISIS Terror Plot in Australia

    February 23, 2018

    Unit 8200 soldiers. Image courtesy of Ha'aretz Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that his country’s “intelligence services prevented an Australian plane from being shot down,” by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). [...]

  • Time Headline Errs on Settlement Growth

    February 21, 2018

    When Time.com picked up an AP story about settlement growth, it chose to run its own headline: "Jewish Settlers in the West Bank Surged Since President Trump Took Office, an Israeli Settler Leader Says." The [...]

  • Where’s the Coverage? Hamas-Fatah Reconciliation is Floundering

    February 21, 2018

    PA President Mahmoud Abbas Recent reconciliation attempts between Hamas, the U.S.-designated terror group that rules the Gaza Strip, and the Fatah movement that dominates the West Bank-ruling Palestinian Authority (PA), are floundering. And major U.S. [...]

  • Boston Globe Op-Ed by Stephen Kinzer Includes Israel in List of Nations in Denial

    February 20, 2018

    A Feb. 18, 2018 Boston Globe Op-Ed, “Nations built on lies,” by Stephen Kinzer, senior fellow at Brown University, lists Austria, China, France, Great Britain, India, Indonesia, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Croatia, Ukraine, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, [...]