Our analysis highlights a significant need for the editorial board to reflect on how bias in its coverage may perpetuate deeply held orientalist and Islamophobic racism in the U.S. that helps to dehumanize Palestinians. This echoes a past instance when the editorial board conducted a comprehensive review of NYT reporting leading up to the Iraq War that culminated in a May 2004 letter stating that some of its reporting, “was not as rigorous as it should have been.” This lack of rigor gave credence to calls for the U.S. led occupation of Iraq that resulted in the deaths of between 280,771-315,190 civilians. Two decades later, the concerns raised in that review closely resemble some of what we’ve found in our current analysis. The repeated reliance on flawed sources or inaccurate official sources as factual information is a consistent pattern in your reporting on the Middle East, as is reliance on passive and selective language which carries dangerous and harmful consequences. 

We urge the NYT to:

• Conduct a thorough internal review of your reporting, using the issues we’ve identified as a starting point.
• Issue a comprehensive editor’s letter outlining necessary corrections to this reporting.
• Issue corrections for individual articles where you have relied on misleading information, unreliable sources, and used passive language to describe Israel’s actions. 
• Appoint a public editor for Israel-Palestine to impartially review content and name/hold accountable editors who rushed through disingenuous reporting without rigorous fact checking. 

We believe in the NYT’s capability for rigorous, evidence-based reporting. It is crucial, now more than ever, for the Times to reflect on its standards and ensure its coverage does not unwittingly support injustice or perpetuate conflict.