The @NYTimes simply cannot help itself, singling out Israel in article on Syria displacements ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Thursday, October 30, 2025

The @NYTimes simply cannot help itself, singling out Israel in article on Syria displacements

When Syria’s nearly 14-year civil war ended last year with the ouster of dictator Bashar al-Assad, many Syrians rejoiced at the chance to finally return to the homes and lands they had abandoned.

The war had displaced more than half the country’s population, as millions fled to other countries and many more sought safer ground within their own borders.

But now, the country’s rocky transition to new leadership has brought fresh waves of displacement, driven by acts of revenge, sectarian violence, decades-old property disputes and Israeli occupation of land in southern Syria.

Between December 2024 and July 2025, more than 430,000 people in Syria were newly displaced, according to the United Nations. No single group among the country’s diverse religious and ethnic communities has been spared the turmoil, which stretched across multiple regions.

Later in the article it circles back to those displaced by Israel's actions on the border, and spends five paragraphs on Israel, quoting Human Rights Watch.

How many were displaced by Israel? "Dozens of families."

Compare that to the 430,000 total displaced since December.

Compare that to the 1,300 people killed in Sweida Province in that timeframe.

The NYT also includes this photo:

Children heading home from school in the Syrian village of Suwaisah in southeastern Syria, where there was an Israeli incursion soon after the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad

Israel doesn't occupy Suwaisah now. The article doesn't mention that village at all. Israel did perform raids against militants there but nothing is happening now, and these schoolchildren are obviously going to school. The only reason for the photo is to imply that Israel is a major reason for Syrians being displaced - and it isn't, by any rational analysis.

But the real anti-Israel bias comes from what the NYT doesn't mention: the huge Turkish occupation in northern Syria. Since December, at a minimum, 120,000 (and some estimate much more) have been displaced by Turkish-backed militias.

That is a lot of people to ignore in an article on displaced Syrians.

The article was co-written by Raja Abdulrahim, who normally writes her anti-Israel invective from Israel itself. Her bias has been clear since before the Times hired her.

This article fits her bias profile: Nothing is inaccurate, but the facts are highly curated to give an impression that is completely wrong. At the most, Israel's displacement of dozens of families is worth a sentence, compared to the hundreds of thousands displaced and thousands killed by other actors in that same timeframe. And five paragraphs highlighting Israel, which is occupying a tiny slice of land on its border, while ignoring Turkey's occupation of 4,000 square kilometers land in the north is not journalism - it is malpractice.