Up First, March 17, 2024: The Sunday Story: Losing the Gaza They Knew

 The March 17 episode of "Up First" was truly heart-wrenching, all the more because it was made so personal.

There is one obvious question: why did you not similarly personalize the story of any of the people who are actually suffering the most in Gaza, far more than either Shema Ahmed or Wafa Abouzadeh and Aboud Okal?

One answer is obvious: Nobody other than Gaza terrorists has any access to them; indeed, for those who are not known to have been murdered yet, nobody other than those terrorists know whether they're still even alive.

Yet no mention was even made of the suffering of the hostages, all of whom are suffering from inhumane treatment and far worse conditions than those you so sympathetically portrayed. There is also have another trait they have that those you highlighted almost certainly don't share: they are all innocent. Given that 98% of the Arabs polled in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority after the October 7 Massacre said they were more proud of being Palestinian thanks to that atrocity, meaning they gloried in the mass murder, slaughter, gang rapes, mutilations, burning alive, beheadings, placing babies in ovens and other barbaric acts perpetrated by Hamas and other terror groups along with thousands of what pass for ordinary Gazans, even if they now may regret that pogrom because they are now suffering some hardship because of it, hardly anyone there can be considered innocent.

Thus, unless NPR vetted Ahmed, Abouzadeh and Okal, they all almost certainly favor the slaughter of innocent Israeli Jews. Yet this episode failed to contain even a hint of that highly relevant near certainty.

While, despite the opinions of three prominent university president - well, since that famous hearing, one prominent president and two former presidents - there is no context that would make calls for the genocide of Jews (or any other people, for the matter) acceptable, when reporting on a war, context is extremely important. When it came to your reporting on the Gaza war in this episode of Up First, the relevant context was either omitted or distorted.

I'll bring up some specific failings in the episode. I will be far from complete, concentrating only on the first half - not because the rest was any better, but because of a lack of time - and making just one comment about the second half.

The episode started by referring to Ramadan as a time of fasting, prayer and celebration. No mention was made of the fact that it's also a time of jihad, with many wars, both against other Muslims and non-Muslims, have been started during Ramadan. Egypt and Syria launched their surprise attack starting the 1973 war during Ramadan. Nor is there any mention of the way Palestinian Arabs almost always ramp up the volume of their terror attacks during Ramadan.

Of course, no mention is made that Israel's Arab enemies, including the Palestinian Arabs, have never shown much respect for the holy days of Jews. Besides started the 1973 war on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for Jews, they perpetrated their October 7 Massacre on a triple holy day: Shabbat, Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah.

Immediately afterwards, it was mentioned "Israel currently prohibits international journalists from entering the territory, so reporting on Palestinians in Gaza and the hardships they're facing is an ongoing challenge," not-very-subtly implying that Israel was trying to stifle reporting and omitting some very good reasons for keeping journalists from going into the war zone, not the least of which is to protect them, Gaza being far from the usual war zone because Hamas is everywhere and thus there can be no truly safe places.

Some other reasons:

Journalists would, willingly or unwillingly, serve as human shields for the terrorists, making it more difficult for Israeli soldiers to combat the terrorists and likely causing more deaths.

Journalists who reported honestly and objectively would likely find themselves murdered by Hamas.

The article mentions more than 85 Palestinian journalists getting killed since October 7, but does not mention how many of them were actually Hamas terrorists moonlighting as journalists. Nor is there any mention of the way journalists participated in the October 7 Massacre.

Shema said that the neighborhood she lived in Gaza was Shijaya and it was "a very beautiful neighborhood." How many times Gaza been described as an "open-air prison" by either an NPR journalist or someone interviewed by NPR? Why was there no observation that Shema's description sharply contradicted all those references to Gaza as an open-air prison?

The episode mentioned "people getting killed by the Israeli military" as they moved from northern Gaza. Why was it not mentioned that Israel encouraged innocent people to move out of the areas of greatest danger and protected them, but that many Hamas terrorists embedded themselves with those people and those killed by Israel were almost certainly terrorists? Why is there no mention that Hamas actually shot at innocent people to keep them from moving to safety, because they wanted more innocent people to both serve as human shields and get killed.

There is mention, early in the war, of Israel not "letting food and water and fuel and electricity" into Gaza, without mentioning that countries at war almost always try to prevent supplies from reaching their enemies. No mention is that Israel has been unique, or nearly so, in that it has been facilitating the transfer of humanitarian supplies to its enemy.

The temporary ceasefire at the end of November is described falsely as containing "a hostage exchange deal." There was no exchange of hostages. There was a release of a few dozen of the innocent Israelis and some foreigners kidnapped by the terrorists and taken hostage in exchange for the release of hundreds of terrorists.

There was a reference to "only two toilets for 100 people;" there was no mention of the way when the hostages being held by terrorists were even allowed to use a toilet, they were accompanied and watched by terrorists, who also accompanied them and watch on the rare occasions some of them were allowed to shower.

There is absolutely no hint at how the conditions being endured by the hostages are so much worse than those of Gazans.

That ceasefire is described as simply "ending" on December 1st. There is no mention of the way it ended: Hamas broke the ceasefire with a barrage of rockets.

In describing the self-inflicted catastrophe of the Arabs in 1948, no mention is made that it was caused by their starting a war, that they weren't considering themselves Palestinians at that time, and it falsely describes them as all being "forcibly, sometimes violently displaced," when only a relative handful of them were forced from their homes by Israel.

Your reporter expresses fear of the consequences of what happens "when people are in so much pain, going through so much trauma, they do want revenge." In other words, worried about a "cycle of violence."

This is nonsensical. Hamas had overwhelming support for its October 7 Massacre and many in Gaza who didn't support Hamas preferred Palestinian Islamic Jihad because that terror group is even worse than Hamas. Israel's response isn't going to create many more terrorist simply because there aren't many people from which to recruit more terrorists. You might try speculating on how Israel's response may deter prospective terrorists and make some Gazans decide living in peace is better for them than continuing to slaughter innocent Israelis.

I'll close with some observations about the portion involving Wafa Abouzadeh and Aboud Okal, which was introduced with an explanation that your reporter was wondering about dual nationals in Gaza and Americans in Gaza.

A question: are Wafa Abouzadeh and Aboud Okal dual nationals? Either they were described as or implied to be American citizens, but are they also citizens of another state? Are they also Egyptian, or Jordanian, or Syrian, or Lebanese, or citizens of some other state?

In terms of Americans in Gaza, why was there no mention about the dozens of Americans murdered by Hamas on October 7 or the Americans kidnapped and taken hostage on October 7? (I believe it was more than a dozen.) Why was there no mention of the half dozen or more Americans still held hostage in Gaza? I'm amazed there was no mention even of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose arm had been blown off on October 7 before he was cruelly taken hostage. Are you only concerned with Americans who voluntarily went to Gaza, but not Americans who were murdered by Gaza terrorists or are being held hostage in Gaza?

Here's a suggestion: Try to produce an episode of Up First centered on an interview with Hersh Goldberg-Polin and, if you don't succeed, have an episode about your efforts and why you failed?

Sincerely,

Alan Stein

Sent to NPR on March 17, 2024.