October 17, 2024
Bryan Jimenez & Emily Wilson
Daily Titan Editorial Team
2600 E. Nutwood Ave, Suite 660
To Bryan Jimenez, and the editorial staff of the Daily Titan,
Titan YDSA writes this letter in opposition to the usage of the term “Israel-Hamas war” in the recent article “Students protest, mourn year of violence” and in other recent Daily Titan articles, such as “Students protest convocation, push for divestment“. For the reasons below, we demand corrections in these articles, and for the Daily Titan to acknowledge the true nature of the genocide and occupation in future articles.
Referring to the situation in Palestine, and more recently specifically in Gaza, as a “war” has long been done by those who seek to cover up the crimes against humanity and genocide that have been perpetrated by the Israeli Occupying Forces. There is no “war”, as a “war” requires two sides in active military conflict; the Palestinian people are resisting a 76-year-long occupation, and the IOF is leading a genocide and battle of aggression to steal and colonize Palestinian land.
Even if it was, defining the two sides as the occupying forces and as Hamas is inaccurate. The Palestinian resistance is comprised of many groups working in coalition with each other; while Hamas is the largest of them, it also includes the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (a secular Marxist-Leninist group), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Fatah (a social-democratic political party that is the largest in the West Bank), and the Popular Resistance Committees.
These articles have also continuously failed to acknowledge that the occupation of and genocide in Palestine did not start on October 7. Palestine has been under illegal occupation for over 76 years, with it having substantially increased in brutality since 1967. This is not an opinion, it is a fact, one that has even been adjudicated by the International Court of Justice. The Daily Titan knows this all too well; even in these stories, it acknowledges the ASI divestment resolution, which passed before October 7.
The Daily Titan’s journalistic integrity is risked every time one of these articles is published. As journalists, the Daily Titan has a responsibility to provide accurate and unbiased reporting. Calling what has been legally adjudicated as an illegal occupation and preliminarily adjudicated as a genocide a “war” is not just irresponsible, it is dangerous; it misinforms the campus community and causes them to treat the most significant ongoing genocide far less seriously than they should. As lead News Editor, these standards apply even more strictly to you; having been at the Daily Titan for two semesters now, you should know better and should be doing better.
We hope that the Daily Titan will make these corrections and changes, and that the most key source of news for students on campus will once again become a bastion of integrity and ethics.
Signed together,
The Titan YDSA Steering Committee