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

  • Israel-E.U. Economic Ties Increase

    February 20, 2018

    Economic ties between the nation of Israel and the European Union (EU) have increased, according to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), a Washington D.C.-based think tank. Ilysa Tuttelman, a researcher for WINEP’s [...]

  • The Media Ignores Foiled Plot to Assassinate Israel’s Defense Minister

    February 20, 2018

    Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman Israeli authorities foiled a plot to assassinate Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, the Shin Bet security service said on Feb. 18, 2018. The Shin Bet’s remarks went widely underreported by major [...]

  • The Song Remains The Same: NYT Backs Off the Palestinian Authority

    February 16, 2018

    Earlier this week, in a moment of candor, the New York Times acknowledged that the Palestinian Authority does, in fact, have agency in shaping the situation in the Israel and the territories. A Feb. 12 [...]

  • Huffington Post Arabic, Platform for Hamas Propaganda

    February 12, 2018

    Feb. 20 Update: Huffington Post Arabic Removes Hamas Propaganda Hamas has found an unlikely platform to amplify its propaganda. Huffington Post Arabic has copied and pasted a Hamas caption, word for word, including language completely [...]

  • UPDATED:The Washington Post Claims Israel Used Iranian Drone As ‘Pretext’ For Attack

    February 10, 2018

    The remnants of the Iranian UAV. Picture courtesy of The Times of Israel The Washington Post treated an Iranian attack against Israel with unwarranted skepticism, using the event to unfairly question the motives of the [...]

  • NY Times: “Hard-Line” Jews Support Recognition of Jerusalem as Capital

    February 8, 2018

    A New York Times news story about this morning's National Prayer Breakfast broad-brushes American Jews who back recognition of Israel's capital in Jerusalem as hard-liners. In the article, White House correspondent Mark Lander asserts: Mr. [...]

  • Los Angeles Times Errs on Commercial Imports to Gaza

    February 8, 2018

    Flat screen television sets at Kerem Shalom crossing on their way to Gaza from Israel, 2012 (photo by Adam Levick) In their Los Angeles Times article yesterday ("Neither Israel nor Hamas wants another war in [...]

  • New York Times, and the Continuous Mischaracterization of BDS

    February 2, 2018

    So maybe the image above is a bit of an overstatement. But for some reason, the New York Times can't seem to get it right when explaining BDS activism to readers. BDS stands for boycott, [...]

  • ‘Moderate’ Palestinian ‘Peace Negotiator’ Outraged Over U.S. Designation of Hamas Terrorist

    February 1, 2018

    Ismail Haniyeh On Jan. 31, 2018 the United States State Department announced that top Hamas operative Ismail Haniyeh was now listed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). Less than twenty-four hours later, the Palestinian [...]

  • Echoes of the Past: German Tanks and the Turkish Government Assaulting Minorities

    January 31, 2018

    An article in the German newspaper Deutsche Welle reports on the consternation of members of the German government over the use of German Leopard tanks by the Turkish army in its cross-border invasion of the [...]