NBC’s coverage of ongoing West Bank violence is disproportionate. The lack of coverage of Palestinian terror threats is striking given the outlet’s publication of several stories in the past two months explicitly covering settler violence. The disparity leaves news consumers with a gapingly incomplete picture of violence in the territories, raising serious questions about the network’s goals in covering the conflict.
On Sept. 20, on the eve of Yom Kippur, a Palestinian terrorist murdered Netanel Chkroun, who, together with his teenaged son, was ritually immersing in a spring near Ramallah in preparation for Judaism’s holiest day. Hamas praised the deadly attack on the father of six, welcoming “the heroic shooting operation.” NBC’s written coverage of the attack was a reposted Reuters story, headlined “Palestinian gunman kills Israeli in the West Bank, Israeli soldiers kill motorist,” rather than original reporting.
The Reuters’ headline, reproduced by NBC, falsely depicts the slain motorist as victim, concealing that the Israeli military eliminated a terrorist attempting to carry out a car ramming attack, and risks obscuring the fundamentally different circumstances of the two events. CAMERA’s Tamar Sternthal pointed out this discrepancy on X:
There’s nothing like a pre-Yom Kippur headline returning to the old false moral equivalencies. Thanks, @Reuters. (And, uh, yeah, the motorist was reportedly carrying out a ramming attack.) https://t.co/zq9AbskiAV pic.twitter.com/pxr1JmCWeq
— Tamar Sternthal (@TamarSternthal) September 20, 2026
The headline’s concealment of the Palestinian attack stands in stark contrast to NBC’s focus on settler attacks. In the past two months, from July 24 through Sept. 24, NBC’s website published original content or wire service coverage highlighting Jewish violence against Palestinians on at least nine separate occasions. The coverage covered almost entirely non-deadly incidents, primarily the siege of Qusra by settlers, as there were no deadly incidents to cover during that time. (One story focused on a deadly incident, the charges against Yinon Levi for the 2025 killing of a Palestinian, an incident that happened over a year ago.) Additionally, NBC’s coverage of the Qusra incident was much more in depth than any coverage of Palestinian terrorism, with on the ground reporters making their way to the village of Qusra itself.
The articles which covered settler violence include:
Aug. 1: “Surging settler violence in the West Bank hung over Trump-Netanyahu White House meeting”
Aug. 6 Associated Press repost: “Israeli prosecutors charge settler with killing Palestinian activist in rare indictment”
Aug. 13: “Inside the Palestinian village under siege by Israeli settlers in the West Bank”
Aug. 13: “U.S. Ambassador Huckabee condemns ‘Israeli terrorists’ for siege of West Bank homes”
Aug. 14: “Palestinians trapped in West Bank settler siege fear ‘catastrophe’ if soldiers withdraw”
Aug. 17: “Inside the return of a Palestinian-American to home besieged by Israeli settlers in West Bank”
Aug. 29: “Palestinian woman and NBC News team attacked by masked Israeli settlers in West Bank”
A few short days following Chkroun’s murder, on Sept. 23, Palestinian Mahmoud Suleiman from Beit Ur-Tahta carried out a car ramming attack, critically injuring Israeli reserve soldier Neria Leiter, the son of Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli Ambassador the United States. After ramming Leiter, Suleiman exited the vehicle and rushed at other Israeli soldiers on the scene, who shot and killed him. NBC’s video report mentioned that Hamas took responsibility for the attack.
Events related to West Bank violence about which NBC did not report include:
On Aug. 18, IDF special forces arrested two Palestinians who were planning attacks against Israelis.
On Sept. 4, the IDF raided a Palestinian terror cell in the West Bank town of Qabatiya, where they discovered an assault rifle along with ammunition and military gear.
On Sept. 7, a Palestinian terrorist stabbed and wounded an Israeli in the area of Maoz Yehuda Farm, near Qusra, in the West Bank.
On Sept. 8, the Times of Israel reported that more than 30 Palestinians were detained for their involvement in a “significant and extensive” terror network in the West Bank.
The lopsided reportage of violence in the West Bank depicts a picture in which Palestinians are only victims at the hands of Israelis, omitting cases when the violence runs the opposite direction. The disparity becomes particularly apparent in the depth of coverage. NBC devoted multiple reports to the same Qusra incident, while several Palestinian attacks and foiled terror plots received no comparable standalone treatment.
NBC should apply the same journalistic scrutiny, rigor and attention to Palestinian violence that it has reserved for Israeli settler attacks Currently, the network appears to be taking sides through selective omission. If the goal is to inform, the whole story matters, not just what NBC decides fits its pre-determined narrative. As the famous oath goes, Americans deserve the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.