NYT Says Palestinian Author ‘Canceled’ Over Jewish ‘Concerns’—Without Noting Her Praise for Oct 7 as an ‘Indigenous Uprising’

When the New York Times reported a Palestinian author’s New Jersey book launch event was canceled over the Jewish community’s "concerns," it omitted a key detail: The concerns stemmed from the author’s praise for Hamas's Oct. 7 massacre and anti-Semitic social media posts.

In its Thursday article, "Bookshop Cancels Event With Palestinian Author Over Community ‘Concerns,’" the Times reported the book launch for Jenan Matari was canceled simply over "her views on the war in Gaza." It blamed the Jewish community for calling on the shop, Watchung Booksellers, to cancel the event over "recent posts she had made on social media they regarded as hateful, divisive and antisemitic."

The Times didn’t quote or embed a single post, even though Matari's social media is rife with radical remarks defending violence, calling for Israel’s destruction, comparing Zionists to Nazis and fascists, and pushing anti-Semitic tropes.

On the day of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, she posted "RESIST" on Facebook with a Palestinian flag and flame emojis. The next day, she called for more violence, calling the brutal attack a "Palestinian uprising."

"May we witness an indigenous uprising and reclamation of our lands on a global scale," Matari wrote. "Our people are the protectors of life and land. May this Palestinian uprising be the push needed for the dominos of colonialism to fall from every corner of this world."

On the first anniversary of the attack, she posted, "One year + 76 of genocide and I don’t give a f*ck about what anyone says or how anyone feels about how we fight and rid our land of vicious colonizers. free Palestine. from the river to the sea."

"One year later and I’ve learned that we (Palestinians) are the first line of defense in protecting this pacified world and that we are absolute treasures in maintaining our dignity," Matari continued.

She also pushed the anti-Semitic trope that Jews control the world.

"Zionists just out there occupying the whole damn western world and no body [sic] wants to resist that?" Matari wrote in February 2024. "The United States is under Zionist occupation."

Instead of including any of those examples—or countless others—the Times buried a link to a single post in which Matari calls on Jews to "tear down the israeli flags in your synagogues" while comparing Zionists to Nazis. The report also noted Matari shared an article by the fringe website The Grayzone about Charlie Kirk’s views on Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu—an inclusion Matari herself called "weird."

The Times article primarily regurgitated Matari’s claims that the local Jewish community pushed Watchung to cancel the event for the launch of her book, and "several people, including a rabbi, had been dispatched to Watchung before her appearance, and that they were 'physically harassing people and sending emails and calling the store all day.'"

The Times stood by its reporting.

"This story is accurate and fairly framed," a spokeswoman told the Washington Free Beacon. "Our report explains Ms. Matari's social media posts, tells readers they were regarded as hateful, divisive, and anti-Semitic, and links to an example which makes clear her views on Zionism. The piece also includes the perspectives of Jewish advocacy groups, and bookstore representatives who said they canceled the event in response to pressure from local community members and concerns over safety."

Rabbi Marc Katz, who leads a congregation in a nearby town, denied claims anyone was "physically harassing people." That detail wasn’t included until much later in the Times story. He confirmed members of the Jewish community encouraged Watchung to cancel the reading, but said no one advocated for the book to be banned or to silence Palestinian voices.

"Palestinian voices are important," Katz told the Times. "The problem was the author."

Near the bottom of the story, the Times notes the Montclair Jewish Community Relations Council said Matari "‘purposely mischaracterized’ the cancellation in order ‘to smear the Montclair Jewish community as bigots and bullies.’"

Asked about the Times’s coverage of the event, the council told the Free Beacon in a statement, "We don’t understand why media outlets seemed unwilling to engage with her easily discoverable record of hate and outright anti-Semitism, particularly the fury and accusations she has expressed toward American Jews."

"Somehow it became about the Gaza war, which is absurd, mostly because her opinions about the war are neither unique nor notable," the statement went on. "As our previous statements to the press have said, the objection to this author's visit was based on her incessant expressions of hate, her dehumanization of Israeli citizens, and her willingness to traffic in classic tropes of anti-Semitism."

This isn’t the first time the Times omitted key details from its anti-Semitism reporting. The day after Kirk was murdered while speaking on a college campus, the Times attributed an anti-Semitic statement to the Turning Point USA founder—except he was actually reading another person’s post to dispute it.

Matari’s book, Everything Grows in Jiddo’s Garden, is a children’s picture book that explores the themes of "displacement, belonging, and an enduring connection to the land," according to its publisher, Interlink.

Matari and Watchung did not respond to requests for comment.

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