US organization withdraws ad from New York Times over refusal to call Israel's bombing of Gaza 'genocide'

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Christian peace advocacy group, said it has canceled a planned ad in the New York Times in response to the paper’s refusal to allow it to refer to Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide, the Guardian reported.

“The New York Times’ refusal to run paid digital ads calling for an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza is a blatant attempt to ignore the truth,” Joyce Ajlouny, the organization’s secretary general, said in a press release .

“Palestinians and their allies have been silenced and marginalized in the media for decades as these institutions choose silence over accountability. Only by challenging this reality can we hope to forge a path toward a more just and equitable world,” she added.

The organization claimed that a representative of the New York Times advertising team suggested that they use the word "war" instead of "genocide."

The committee cited groups such as the Center for Constitutional Rights, the University Network for Human Rights, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and several Palestinian human rights groups that have argued that Israel is committing genocide or acts of genocide in Gaza.

The organization supports humanitarian efforts in Gaza and is lobbying in the United States for "a permanent ceasefire, full humanitarian access, the release of all prisoners, and an end to US military funding to Israel."

The organization also pointed to an advertisement published by Amnesty International in the Washington Post late last week that described Israel's actions as genocide.

The New York Times has run ads using the term before. In 2016, it ran an ad from the Armenian Education Foundation thanking Kim Kardashian for her opposition to Armenian Genocide denial. In 2008, presidential candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain co-signed a New York Times ad denouncing the Darfur genocide.