Key Takeaways:
- The Times manufactured a narrative. A small Montclair book event became national news because it fit the storyline: Jews as censors, Palestinians as victims.
- Spin by omission. The NYT downplayed the bookstore’s full statement and ignored Matari’s antisemitic posts, recasting community protection as mob pressure.
- Call out the NYT’s narrative laundering. Share this, challenge it, and hold the New York Times accountable.
The New York Times’ coverage of a canceled book event in Montclair, New Jersey, leans on familiar tropes: the noble Palestinian author cast as victim, the Jewish community as oppressor.
In “Bookshop Cancels Event With Palestinian Author Over Community ‘Concerns’”, the Times reports that Jenan Matari’s children’s book launch was scrapped “because of her views on the war in Gaza.” Readers are told that “a local rabbi” had raised concerns about her social media, and the story is framed as a micro-scandal in which debates over Israel, antisemitism, and cancel culture spill into suburban life.
The subtext is hard to miss: pesky Jews, sensitive about Israel, once again conspiring to muzzle a Palestinian voice.
What the NYT Reported
The Times emphasizes Matari’s narrative of victimhood. In an Instagram video, she claimed “members of the community” who disagreed with her “very direct” support for Palestinians pressured the store. The paper then ties this to broader tensions: “divisions grow among American Jews about supporting Israel’s conduct of the war,” and even school districts are “mired in debates over antisemitism.”
We’re even treated to a little product placement: her publisher’s blurb for the children’s book, a “poignant celebration of love, identity and hope.”
When asked for comment, Matari didn’t speak but instead sent the Times screenshots of alleged emails and Facebook posts calling for the store not to “normalize antisemitism.” The Times dutifully ran the material while noting it couldn’t verify the posts.
In Watchung Booksellers’ full statement — which the NYT reduced to vague mentions of “concerns” and a “security threat” — the store had noted its partnerships with civic and religious groups and local schools, implying that hosting Matari would have been at odds with the values it promotes as a community-oriented bookstore.
What the NYT Didn’t Report
The most glaring omission: Jenan Matari’s social media.
Matari herself directed the Times to her feeds. Yet reporters Taylor Robinson and Samantha Latson apparently didn’t bother looking.
Just a sampling of her posts (all publicly available):
- Comparisons of Israel to Nazi Germany and calls Israelis “Nazis.”
- Accusations that the U.S. is under “Zionist occupation.”
- Posts just hours after October 7 describing Hamas’s atrocities—massacres, rapes, and the murder of children—as legitimate “resistance.”
- Explicit celebration of the Hamas attacks as a “Palestinian uprising” against “colonialism.”
This isn’t hidden. It’s right there. Any responsible journalist could confirm it in 10 minutes.
Rather than grapple with the fact that a children’s author openly glorifies terror and traffics in antisemitic conspiracy theories, the Times chose instead to indulge in a few of its own.
- Criticism of Israel = antisemitism? Check.
- Local Jews wielding “power” to silence critics? Check.
- Hints of Jewish dual loyalty? Check.
Further reading: Anas al-Sharif Was a Terrorist but The New York Times Doesn’t Care
All neatly bundled into one seemingly harmless news story about a little-known author’s canceled book event. Funny how this was the local episode the NYT deemed worthy of national attention.
As for Matari’s toxic social media? The only nod was a single mention that she’d shared a Grayzone conspiracy screed blaming Israel for Charlie Kirk’s assassination. When pressed by the Times, she simply “did not respond.”
Why It Matters
The New York Times has elevated a minor local dispute into a national morality tale. By amplifying the cancellation of one book event in suburban New Jersey, the paper casts Jews as overzealous enforcers of cancel culture, silencing a Palestinian voice over the war in Gaza.
That framing depends on omission. The Times declined to do basic due diligence on Matari’s social media, where she praised the October 7 massacre as “resistance” and pushed antisemitic conspiracy theories. That material would have made clear why a bookstore working with local schools and civic groups might think twice about hosting her. Instead, the Times chose to highlight her claims of harassment and “unsafe” employees — as though the real problem were the Jewish community itself.
This is more than sloppy reporting. It is role reversal: Jews who object to being targeted by someone who calls for their destruction are portrayed as bullies, while Matari is elevated as the silenced voice of reason.
In the end, the Times didn’t just cover a canceled book event — it used it to reinforce a storyline in which Jews are the censors, Palestinians the victims, and antisemitism treated as a matter of opinion, open for debate.
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