October 28, 2025
Over 300 writers, scholars, and public figures are boycotting the New York Times opinion section over its coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
More than 300 writers, scholars, and public figures have announced a boycott of The New York Times’ opinion section, accusing the publication of exhibiting an “anti-Palestinian bias” in its coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict and war in Gaza.
Op-ed writers from the outlet signed an open letter, pledging to stop contributing to the Times and urging it to revise its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, Middle East Eye reports. In the letter, titled “Genocide Is Not a Matter of Opinion,” the boycotting writers accuse the Times of providing “biased coverage” of the war in Gaza and of amplifying “the U.S. and Israel’s lies.”
“Until The New York Times takes accountability for its biased coverage and commits to truthfully and ethically reporting on the US-Israeli war on Gaza, any putative ‘challenge’ to the newsroom or the editorial board in the form of a first-person essay is, in effect, permission to continue this malpractice,” the letter states.
Signed by more than 150 former Times contributors, the letter outlined the reasons the signatories believe the boycott is necessary.
“Only by withholding our labor can we mount an effective challenge to the hegemonic authority that the Times has long used to launder the U.S. and Israel’s lies,” the letter reads. “The Times’ opinion section is nothing without its contributors, and it is our responsibility to delegitimize and decenter the Times as the ‘paper of record.’”
As part of the boycott, the letter outlined three key demands for the Times to address. First, it calls for “a review of anti-Palestinian bias” and the creation of new editorial standards for covering Palestine. The signatories are also demanding updated sourcing and citation practices, as well as a revised style guide governing the paper’s language when reporting on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Additionally, the letter urges the Times to prohibit journalists who have served in the Israeli military from covering related stories.
The writers also called for the retraction of a December 2023 article titled “Screams Without Words,” which relied heavily on the account of an unnamed Israeli special forces paramedic who alleged that Palestinians involved in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack committed sexual assaults against Israeli women. A spokesperson for the kibbutz, a communal settlement engaging in agriculture and other activities, where the article claimed the assaults occurred, later denied the allegations reported by the Times.
The letter also called on the Times to publish an editorial advocating for “an end to U.S. weapons transfers to Israel.” Referencing the Times’ past updates to its style guide during the 1980s AIDS crisis and its public apology for flawed reporting on the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, the letter asserts that “these demands are neither impossible nor unreasonable.”
“We owe it to the journalists and writers of Palestine to refuse complicity with the Times, and to demand that the paper account for its failures, such that it can never again manufacture consent for mass slaughter, torture, and displacement,” the letter states.
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