Covering Palestine: Historic news clippings reveal US media complicity in Israel’s crimes

Maria Robles has created an online archive of more than 3,000 American newspaper clippings about Palestine, spanning 1724 to 2023. The project aims to make historical reporting accessible and help readers examine how US media have framed Palestine over time, amid criticism that recent coverage has legitimised Israel’s actions and weakened accountability.

The archive draws on nearly 700 newspapers and can be searched by year, publication and subject. Its examples include early headlines describing Zionist activity as colonisation, a term that largely gave way to “settlement” by 1948. The article also cites a 2024 study reporting differences in how outlets used words such as “massacre”: the New York Times used it 124 times for Israeli victims and never for Palestinian victims during the first 100 days after 7 October 2023, while CNN used it 225 times for Israelis and 16 times for Palestinians in the first year.