How NPR Covers the War in Gaza

NPR spends far more time in its “State of the World Podcast” covering the war in Gaza than it does any other conflict in the world, including the Russia-Ukraine war, the Sudanese war, and the ongoing conflicts in Yemen, Syria, Myanmar, and Libya. And when its two journalists, Daniel Estrin and Aya Batrawy, interview Hamas leaders, they fail completely to challenge their false remarks. CAMERA provides more details on this atrocious coverage by NPR here: “NPR’s ‘State of the World:’ Soft Questions for a Hardened Terrorist. Twice.” By Jennifer Kouzi, CAMERA, January 12, 2026:

If the frequency with which NPR’s “State of the World” podcast reported on a country or conflict represented its percentage of land mass, one would think Israel occupied nearly a quarter of the globe. Despite Israel (including Gaza and the West Bank) consisting of 0.0001 percent of the world’s land mass, it was the subject of 24 percent of the almost 260 “State of the World” podcast episodes in 2025.

While one could argue that the oversized attention given to this tiny country was due to the war, Russia and Ukraine combined made up less than nine percent of “State of the World” episodes in 2025 (and combined, more than 11 percent of the world’s land mass). Sudan, the civil war which has fueled what the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants has labeled “the largest displacement crisis in the world,” garnered the attention of a meager two percent of “State of the World” episodes during the same time period.

NPR is energetic when it wants to be — its written and broadcast coverage of Israel plentiful and vociferous, with a predilection for anti-Israel guests and topics. Indeed, when NPR sat down for the second time with Hamas leader Bassem Naim on “State of the World” in mid-December 2025, it became clear NPR was looking to endear listeners to Naim yet again, rather than pose any tough questions.

In contrast to NPR’s harsh words for actors in other conflicts (e.g. describing former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as having “engaged in massive fraud to steal elections,” and “despised” by most Venezuelans, and referring to Assad’s regime as a “corrupt dictatorship” and a “web of control and corruption,”) NPR offered calm, almost passive exchanges with Hamas….

In its entire history, NPR has not once reported on the massive corruption in Hamas. Three of the senior leaders of Hamas — Ismail Haniyeh, Khaled Meshaal, Mousa Abu Marzouk Sinwar — have collectively stolen a total of $11 billion from the aid money intended for all the people of Gaza. In addition, NPR has never reported on the $100 million fortune that Mahmoud Abbas amassed. Surely this staggering level of corruption, in Hamas and in the Palestinian Authority, provides essential information about the state of Palestinian governance.

Hamas was “willing to negotiate” over its weapons, reported NPR’s Daniel Estrin. Ready “not to use [weapons]” for “five, seven or 10 years as long as we are not attacked,” [Bassem] Naim said. But the U.S.-sanctioned terrorist clarified that Hamas would not disarm without negotiations towards a Palestinian state.

Daniel Estrin was flatly wrong. At no time has Hamas said it would “negotiate”over its weapons; it has repeatedly said it will never disarm, and still does today. Bassem Naim’s remark that for “five, seven or 10 years,” if not attacked by the IDF, Hamas would not “use [weapons],” that meant that it would still hold onto those weapons. NPR’s Daniel Estrin failed to make this clear, leaving his audience under the impression that Hamas was prepared to give up its weapons under the right conditions.

We shall be looking to see if NPR in the coming year finally tells its audience what the Hamas Charter says about destroying the Jewish state. We hope NPR will reveal that the three senior Hamas leaders — Khaled Meshaal, Mousa abu Marzouk, and the late Ismael Haniyeh — managed between themselves to steal $11 million in aid money meant for the people in Gaza.

We hope that NPR begins to interview Israelis across the political spectrum, and not limit itself to Haaretz journalists and others who can be counted on to attack Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It would be good if NPR stopped molding the reaction of its audience by labelling the Israeli government, or some of its ministers, as “far right” — a Homeric epithet that is used to undermine those to whom it is applied. We hope that NPR’s coverage of the war in Gaza is no longer so massive, so obsessively anti-Israel, so full of sob stories about the “Palestinian victims of the war.” We have to see if NPR will, instead of reporting on accusations of “genocide” in Gaza, will explain to its audience that “genocide” requires intent, and instead of an intent by Israel to commit genocide, we find that the IDF has engaged in a tremendous effort to minimize civilian deaths, by dropping millions of leaflets, sending millions of text messages, and making millions of robocalls, in order to warn civilians of sites about to be targeted.

Not once in more than two years of war has NPR ever mentioned this effort. NPR should explain why it has failed to do so. Finally, why does NPR persist in describing Judea and Samaria as “the occupied West Bank”? The toponym “West Bank” was invented by the Jordanians in 1950, as a way to avoid using the placenames “Judea and Samaria” that had been in use for the past 3000 years, in an attempt to efface the Jewish connection to the land, the same reason that prompted the Romans to change the name of “the Kingdom of Judah” to “Palestine.” NPR must be asked why it calls Judea and Samaria “occupied” when there was no previous sovereign state in the area, and furthermore, Judea and Samaria were part of the territory assigned by the League of Nations to the Mandate for Palestine, territory that in due time was expected to become the Jewish state. Every time the journalists on NPR say “occupied West Bank,” they are repeating Arab propaganda and poisoning minds against Israel’s legitimate claim to that land. What a difference it would make if they instead referred, correctly, to “Judea and Samaria.”