The New York Times caused uproar online after it published a guest essay by Gaza City's mayor, Yahya R. Sarraj, on damage to buildings and civilian infrastructure.
The guest essay, released on Christmas Eve, listed examples of destruction in Gaza after Hamas terrorists killed and kidnapped Israeli, American and other civilians on Oct. 7.
"The unrelenting destruction of Gaza — its iconic symbols, its beautiful seafront, its libraries and archives and whatever economic prosperity it had — has broken my heart," Sarraj wrote.
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The guest essay quickly attracted criticism online from human rights activists and media commentators.
"Oh, nothing to see here," International Legal Forum CEO Arsen Ostrovsky wrote in a post on Monday. "Just [The Times] publishing an op-ed by Hamas appointed mayor of Gaza, Yahya Sarraj. I wonder, would NYT also publish an op-ed from Al-Qaeda justifying 9-11? Of course not, but there is no red line to this paper's Jew hatred."
Kiryas Joel School District superintendent Joel Petlin argued that the guest essayist was appointed as mayor by Hamas, a terrorist organization.
"He [Sarraj] was appointed to be the mayor of Gaza City by the same terrorist organization that perpetrated the rape, kidnapping, & murder of innocent Israeli civilians on October 7th," Petlin wrote. "I'm surprised that the NY Times only gave him an OpEd column and didn't offer him a full-time position."
Weekly Standard writer Adam Rubenstein also drew attention to the hostage crisis in a post on Christmas, arguing that Sarraj "[l]eaves out important context for Israel's campaign in Gaza: The hostages. Instead, it claims that no ‘sane person’ could do what Israel is doing. You certainly don't need to agree with Israel's aims, but you do need to engage with them. The word 'hostage' doesn't appear in the essay."
Sarraj claimed that the Israeli invasion has caused "the deaths of more than 20,000 people," a figure he sourced from the Gaza Health Ministry.
"The Israeli invasion has caused the deaths of more than 20,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and destroyed or damaged about half the buildings in the territory," Sarraj wrote. "The Israelis have also pulverized something else: Gaza City’s cultural riches and municipal institutions."
The Times and other media organizations have received criticism for using information from the Gaza Health Ministry and other Palestinian organizations. The New York Times admitted in October that "editors should have taken more care with the initial presentation" of the explosion that occurred at a Gaza hospital last week after the paper "relied too heavily on claims by Hamas," including on claims from the Hamas-backed Gaza Health Ministry.
Sarraj continued to blame Israel for the destruction of civilian infrastructure in Gaza City.
"Why did the Israeli tanks destroy so many trees, electricity poles, cars and water mains?" he wrote. "Why would Israel hit a U.N. school? The obliteration of our way of life in Gaza is indescribable. I still feel I am in a nightmare because I can’t imagine how any sane person could engage in such a horrific campaign of destruction and death."
"The Gaza Zoo has been destroyed," the mayor added, "with many of its animals killed or starved to death, including wolves, hyenas, birds and rare foxes. Other casualties include the city’s main public library, the Children’s Happiness Center, the municipal building and its archive, and the seventh-century Great Omari Mosque. Israeli forces have also damaged or destroyed streets, squares, mosques, churches and parks."
The New York Times did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
