Description: Man wearing a PFLP headband was among the protesters outside of the New York Times headquarters in Manhattan.
Members of the New York City branch of the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) protested outside the front entrance of the New York Times headquarters in Manhattan. The PYM accused the Times of attempting to “kill the story” about the death of Hossam Shabat who was killed in an Israeli airstrike earlier this week. According to documents released by the IDF last October, Shabat was a sniper for Hamas in addition to being a reporter for the Qatari government funded media outlet Al-Jazeera.
Among the protesters was a man donning a headband of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). An organization which participated in the October 7 massacre against Israel and which the United States has designated as a terrorist group since 1997. Additionally, the protester in the headband was carrying a flag with the face of Ghassan Kanafani, a former spokesman for the PFLP.
Other keffiyeh clad protesters were carrying signs with Hossam Shabat’s picture and distributing their own mock newspaper, titled New York War Crimes, to the individuals leaving the building. This wasn’t the first time that the New York War Crimes and the alleged Hamas sniper had crossed paths.
In an issue released during December 2024, they published the transcript of an interview conducted by Shabat with an anonymous Palestinian woman. Here is an excerpt of what she said: “All of us are Hamas and all of us are Fatah. . . . We are Al-Qassam [the military wing of Hamas], and we will not turn away from our rights.”
This is also not the first time the New York Times headquarters has been the subject to protest. On November 9, 2023, the building was targeted by pro-Palestinian vandals who spray painted the windows of the ground level and splattered the entrance with red paint. That same night the vandals also spray painted and smashed the windows of nearby police cars.
Despite it occurring at their literal front door, and there being open support for terrorism, the Times has yet to acknowledge that the protest has even happened.
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