Wall Street Journal Faces Scrutiny Over Unproven UNRWA-Hamas Allegations: Semaphore
LONDON: The Wall Street Journal is unable to verify claims from a January report suggesting links between staff of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East and Hamas militants.
According to US news website Semaphore, the WSJ's top editor, who oversees standards, has privately admitted that the allegations based on Israeli intelligence reports cannot be proven.
Chief news editor Elena Cherny acknowledged in an email seen by Semaphore that the Israeli claims lacked solid evidence but that the initial reporting was neither false nor misleading.
“The fact that the Israeli claims are not supported by substantial evidence does not mean that our reporting was false or misleading, that we have retracted it, or that there is an error that can be corrected,” Cherney wrote in an email.
The January report, described as one of the “biggest and most compelling stories about the war,” claimed that 10 percent of the agency's 12,000 workers in Gaza had participated in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, with 12 UNRWA staff. Hamas.
This story, based on Israeli intelligence, was later challenged by several international organizations and the United Nations following an independent investigation.
The story had a significant impact, with a heavy psychological toll on UNRWA workers and a $450 million aid freeze by various countries at a critical moment for Gaza, which is facing the threat of famine.
Semaphore reported that WSJ reporters tried and failed to corroborate the story's central 10 percent claim, raising concerns about the story's Israeli-leaning nature.
“Our coverage of UNRWA is part of a longer reporting effort involving staff in the newsroom on the war in Gaza,” a WSJ spokesman said, confirming the paper stood by the January story and subsequent reporting.
The incident has highlighted internal friction within the WSJ newsroom since the conflict began, including concerns over the leadership of Deputy Middle East Bureau Chief Shandy Rice and the controversial social media activity of the story's author, Carrie Keller-Lynn.
The WSJ has also faced scrutiny for its unbalanced reporting of Gaza events, with former Standard editor Richard Boudreaux admitting the paper “leans too heavily on Israeli voices and does not include enough Arab perspectives or expert sources.”
