Semaphore: The Wall Street Journal is under investigation for unverified UNRWA and Hamas allegations
LONDON: The Wall Street Journal has yet to confirm claims in a January report alleging links between staff at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East and Hamas militants.
According to the American news website Semafor, the senior editor of the WSJ, which monitors standards, has privately admitted that the allegations, based on Israeli intelligence reports, may not be substantiated.
In an email seen by Semaphore, senior news editor Elena Cherny acknowledged that Israel's claims lacked hard evidence, but said the initial report was neither false nor misleading.
“The fact that Israel's claims are not supported by hard evidence does not mean that our report was false or misleading, that we have retracted it, or that there is a correctable error here,” Cherney wrote in an email.
The January report, described as one of the “biggest and most influential stories of the war,” claimed that 12 UNRWA employees were involved in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and that 10 percent of the agency's 12,000 workers in Gaza were linked to them. Hamas
This story, based on Israeli intelligence, was later challenged by several international organizations and the UN itself following independent investigations.
The story had significant consequences, including a heavy psychological toll on UNRWA workers and the suspension of $450 million in international aid at a critical time for Gaza, which is at risk of famine.
Semaphore reported that WSJ reporters had tried and failed to verify the 10 percent claim in the original story, raising concerns about the nature of the story to Israel.
“Our coverage of UNRWA is part of a long-running reporting effort on the war in Gaza that involves newsroom staff,” a WSJ spokesman confirmed, confirming that the paper is sticking to the January report and subsequent reports.
The incident has highlighted internal friction in the WSJ newsroom since the conflict began, including concerns over the leadership of Middle East deputy bureau chief Shaindy Rice and the controversial social media activity of the story's author, Carrie Keller-Lane.
The WSJ has also come under fire for its unbalanced reporting of events in Gaza, with former Standards editor Richard Boudreau admitting that the paper “relies too heavily on Israeli voices and does not include Arab perspectives or sufficient expert sources.” did not have.”
