"After the [New York Times] “dog rape” story, we examined “human stories” Nick Kristof has published on Gaza.

What we found is alarming.

Sources presented as credible and apolitical supporting terrorism, don’t match descriptions – or may not exist. Did Kristof verify any of this?

2/
Take Mohamed Abu Jafar.

In one column, Kristof holds him up as the kind of Palestinian who preserves a shared humanity, citing him as an example of those “who press for reconciliation and peace,” and in another calling him a “wise” Palestinian from Jenin whose 16‑year‑old brother was shot dead by Israeli forces – and even has him saying “the only practical option… is working for peace.”

A tragic story – and a quote Kristof reuses as his moral anchor. But Abu Jafar’s own Facebook tells a very different story: glorifying “martyrs,” posts about armed terrorists and “resistance,” praising attacks and celebrating jihad and martyrdom.

This is the man readers are told embodies wisdom and is “working for peace.” 3/
Kristof never tells readers one crucial fact: Abu Jafar’s brother was not killed in the current war.

In another NYT piece, the brother’s death date is given as 2002. Abu Jafar also appears to post his grave on Facebook, identifying him as a “martyr” of the Al-Aqsa Intifada.

But none of that context appears in Kristof’s columns. Instead, readers are left with the impression of a fresh tragedy – while a man who openly glorifies “martyrdom” is presented as a voice of “shared humanity” and “peace.” 4/
Then there’s Mohammed Alshannat.

Kristof devoted an entire Gaza column to his messages – describing Alshannat as a “gentle scholar… the opposite of Hamas,” a remote PhD student whose life is shattered by the war. Central to that narrative is his cousin, Esa Alshannat: a 20‑year‑old computer science student and “brilliant pianist,” supposedly found dead, “rotten and half eaten by wild dogs,” still clutching tuna cans.

But we can’t find any trace that “Esa Alshannat” ever existed. We checked multiple casualty databases with multiple spellings and Arabic variants of the name, searched lists of 20‑year‑old students killed in Gaza, reviewed Gaza‑focused memorial sites, university and department pages, and looked for any public tributes or condolences on social media. Nothing. Not a single public record, list, or mourning post that matches Kristof’s description. 5/
So far, we have not been able to locate any public trace of the cousin Kristof describes. We may be missing something.

But given how central the tragic story of “Esa Alshannat” is to this column, it is reasonable to ask: can Nick Kristof, or the New York Times, provide any evidence that this 20‑year‑old computer science student and “brilliant pianist” existed and died in the way they described? 6/
In another column, Kristof turns to Mitri Raheb, a Lutheran pastor and university president in Bethlehem, as a representative voice of “Palestinian Christians” – implying a sober, moderate figure merely “against annexation.”

But Raheb’s own message about October 7 says something else entirely: in one post, he describes the “young Palestinian fighters” of that day as people under siege whose “quest for freedom” is a justified “resistance,” and urges supporters to “decolonize Palestine.”

This is not a neutral, apolitical Christian interlocutor – it is another partisan activist held out to readers as a balanced moral authority. 7/
Put this together and a disturbing pattern emerges. A man who glorifies “martyrs” and jihad is sold as a wise apostle of “shared humanity.” A “brilliant pianist” dead searching for food appears in no public record. A pastor praising Oct. 7 “fighters” is cast as moderate. 8/
These aren’t minor details.

They go to the heart of whether Nick Kristof – and the New York Times – have been transparent and rigorous in vetting the stories they’ve used to shape global opinion on this war.

They owe readers clear evidence and answers."
https://x.com/HonestReporting/status/2057075238450438524

"Nikolas Kristof has on various occasions referred to Hezbollah as a Palestinian organization.

These two are from 2007 and 2008"
https://x.com/JacobALinker/status/2057229713764913256

"Kristof doesn't verify his sources.

In his 11/4/2023 piece "Losing Hope in the West Bank", Kristof says that he has no interest in checking to see if what he is told by people he barely knows is true, because "alternative narratives" are "real to those inhabiting it".
https://x.com/JacobALinker/status/2057143421333045392