While media bias is seemingly ever present, once in a while an article is so egregious that it shocks even media watchdogs. Such is the case with a September 16 CNN article, “UN commission says Israel is committing genocide in Gaza,” authored by Catherine Nicholls.
The article covers a report by a United Nations (UN) Commission of Inquiry (COI) – a body loaded with controversy – that accused Israel of carrying out a “genocide” in the Gaza Strip. A pronouncement by a UN body may in some cases be newsworthy, even considering the UN’s declining relevance. However, given its history of controversies, professional journalists should demonstrate skepticism.
CNN and Nicholls in particular failed spectacularly. A serious accusation like “genocide” should come with serious evidence – and serious scrutiny. Neither was given. Instead, Nicholls’s article is filled with false claims and material omissions. Below is a non-exhaustive list of 15 major lies either advanced by the COI and left unchallenged by Nicholls, or made in Nicholls’s own words.
Lie #1: The report is “the most authoritative UN finding to date.”
To describe the COI’s report as “authoritative” is dishonest. Consider just a few informative facts about the COI omitted by Nicholls that contradict the Commission’s PR spin.
First, there is the exceedingly low evidentiary standard. Under the Commission’s terms of reference, they need only find “reasonable grounds.” That’s roughly the equivalent of the standard an American law enforcement officer needs to perform a search, but far below that which is needed to find guilt. Whether the commissioners even bother to meet low standard is an open question.
Second, there are no “reasonable grounds” to find that any of the three commissioners meet the UN’s requirements of impartiality, personal integrity, and objectivity. All three had records of anti-Israel activism prior to joining the COI, and since joining, all three have made either blatantly antisemitic statements or statements defending their fellow commissioner’s antisemitic remarks. Bear in mind, under the COI’s terms of reference, the commissioners can deem their own “findings” as enough to “corroborate” a witness’s claims.
Third, the COI has refused to consider evidence submitted by individuals and organizations not hostile to the Jewish state. After a number of organizations, including CAMERA, submitted millions of pieces of evidence to the COI, the Commission simply ignored them. During its “public hearings,” the COI invited only individuals and organizations known for their hostility to Israel.
These are just a handful of examples why the COI lacks any credibility and authoritativeness. For more, see this compilation of materials on the COI from Human Rights Voices.
Lie #2: “…according to the Palestinian health ministry there.”
CNN continues to mislead its audience by referring to Hamas’s “health ministry” as the “Palestinian health ministry.” In doing so, the network effectively launders the claims of an internationally designated terrorist organization, lending it undeserved credibility and violating a basic tenet of journalistic ethics. In the words of the Society of Professional Journalists: “Identify sources clearly. The public is entitled to as much information as possible to judge the reliability and motivations of sources.”
Lie #3: “Israel has accused the [UN Human Rights Council], which commissioned the report, of having an anti-Israel bias.”
This is true insofar as Israel has made this accusation. But omitted is that Israel is far from alone in having made it. For example, during a UN debate in October 2022, 18 countries – a majority of those taking the floor – criticized the COI for its bias against Israel and the antisemitic remarks of the commissioners. Others, including UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, several other UN officials, and organizations around the world also echoed the criticism of the COI’s egregious bias. In January 2022, 42 bipartisan members of Congress wrote a letter demanding the U.S. work to end the COI given it is “inherently biased.” Two months later, over two-thirds of the entire U.S. Senate also called for the COI to be dismantled. Criticisms of the COI by countries haven’t stopped, either.
This omission, minimizing criticism of the UN and COI, is particularly egregious given that Nicholls, just a few sentences later, misleadingly inflates the “growing” accusations of “genocide” by listing accusers, such as the one featured in Lie #4.
Lie #4: “…the International Association of Genocide Scholars – the world’s largest body of genocide scholars – said that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza.”
Given revelations over the last two weeks, it should raise eyebrows that Nicholls is still treating the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) as a credible source. As CAMERA already documented here, IAGS is not a “body of genocide scholars” – anyone with a valid credit card could join, even under entirely fake identities. Furthermore, fewer than a quarter (108) of its membership actually voted (anonymously) in favor of the resolution making the claim. Far more scholars and experts (514) have publicly signed on to a competing statement rejecting IAGS’s conclusions.
Why, CNN’s readers should ask, would the article mention the opinion of this discredited association, but not the opinion of the countries, politicians, and organizations listed in Lie #3?
Lie #5: “…a pair of leading Israeli human rights groups became the first organizations from Israel to make the claim that their country was ‘committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.’”
The organizations did accuse Israel of committing “genocide.” But notably, they could only do so by changing the definition of the crime. In other words, they couldn’t fit a square peg through a round hole, so they cut out an entirely new square-shaped hole and called it “round.”
Lie #6: “…South Africa accused Israel of genocide in an unprecedented case at the International Court of Justice…”
Setting aside South Africa’s cozy relationship with Hamas and its self-admitted difficulties in coming up with evidence of “genocide,” the case is not, in fact, “unprecedented.” Proceedings in the International Court of Justice under the Genocide Convention have occurred in the past, including between Croatia and Serbia, Bosnia and Serbia, Ukraine and Russia, and The Gambia and Myanmar. Proceedings under the latter two are still ongoing. That media outlets like CNN are apparently unaware of these cases, while reporting breathlessly on South Africa’s cynical case, speaks volumes about the state of journalism.
Lie #7: “…Navi Pillay, a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, former International Criminal Court judge, and former judge and president of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.”
One of the most popular flyers distributed at the Durban Conference, which COI chairperson Navi Pillay vociferously defended. Credit: Human Rights Voices
Nicholls mentions the parts of her biographical record that are supposed to lend her credibility while omitting those that discredit her work. For example, Pillay was perhaps the most outspoken defender of a 2001 conference in Durban, South Africa, which was described by one Holocaust survivor in attendance, Tom Lantos, as “the most sickening and unabashed display of hate for Jews I have seen since the Nazi period.” Pillay also “generated and championed” the infamous Goldstone Report, produced by a previous UN commission of inquiry, that also leveled accusations of crimes against Israel. So riddled with errors was this report that even the chairperson, Richard Goldstone, subsequently recanted its conclusions. Pillay herself continued pushing the report long after it had been widely discredited.
Lie #8: “These munitions were used despite the knowledge that they would kill civilians, the commission said.”
This claim builds on a deceptive narrative CNN itself has dishonestly promoted. The gist is that Israel has used 2,000-pound “dumb” bombs (also referred to as “heavy unguided munitions” and “wide-impact munitions” by the COI) which, in CNN’s words, are “capable of killing or wounding people more than 1,000 feet away,” and therefore this means the IDF is somehow being indiscriminate.
But CNN – and the COI – are deceiving their audience through a rhetorical bait and switch. In fine print, CNN admitted that the bomb craters it analyzed were “consistent with underground explosions.” When detonated underground (i.e., targeting Hamas’s tunnel network), fragmentation, blast waves, and debris are significantly reduced. CNN’s “more than 1,000 feet away” figure would be true only if the bombs had been detonated above ground.
Regardless, the idea that Israel’s use of 2,000-pound bombs is somehow suspect is unsupported by both the law and the facts. CNN was forced to correct on this point when CAMERA pointed out that the U.S. dropped thousands of 2,000-pound bombs in Iraq, including in places like Mosul.
But there’s a more fundamental lie at play by the COI, which CNN uncritically broadcasts. The question, in international law, isn’t whether a party knew civilians might die in a particular strike. In fact, it is perfectly legal in many circumstances to launch a strike knowing that civilians will also be killed. What actually matters, both legally and morally, is whether the strike was targeted at the civilians and, if not, whether the anticipated collateral harm to civilians was disproportionate to the military advantage gained by the strike. Were the law otherwise, it would perversely incentivize human shielding by actors like Hamas. The COI, which notably lacks expertise on the law of armed conflict, simply ignored these fundamental tenets of international law. And while CNN regularly brings on “experts,” such as the error-prone, Nazi-memorabilia collecting Marc Garlasco, the network rarely brings on law of armed conflict experts to challenge claims such as the COI’s.
Lie #9: “‘The victims of the bombing were not singled out or targeted as individual civilians. On the contrary, victims were targeted collectively due to their identity as Palestinians,’ it said.”
Other than the usual out-of-context quotes, which have been repeatedly debunked, the COI fails to produce any evidence for this claim. This is notable given that the international law requirement to establish this intent is an extremely high bar. Given CNN’s propensity to cast doubt on Israeli claims by adding the phrase “without providing evidence” to Israel’s statements, it’s telling CNN would repeat claims such as this without similar qualifications.
But this narrative can be quickly debunked using basic mathematics. Were the IDF targeting its bombs to just kill “Palestinians” as a whole, one would expect casualty rates to roughly correspond to Gaza’s demographics. Yet, according to Hamas’s own data, 53.4% of all listed casualties were combat-age men (despite representing only 29% of the population), while only 21.4% of casualties were under the age of 15 (despite 40% of all Gazans being under the age of 15).
For a more complete debunking of this claim, see the BESA Center’s September 2, 2025 report, “Debunking the Genocide Allegations: A Reexamination of the Israel-Hamas War from October 7, 2023 to June 1, 2025.”
Lie #10: “Israel has long accused Hamas of using civilians in Gaza as human shields, embedding military infrastructure in civilian areas…”
When the evidence is so overwhelming, it becomes an established fact, not an “accusation.” Intelligence agencies have confirmed it. The UN has repeatedly admitted to its facilities being used to shield Hamas weapons and tunnels. There are, by now, countless publicly available examples of drone and CCTV footage showing Hamas using hospitals. So, too, are there internal Hamas documents evidencing its systematic use of human shielding. Journalists have also exposed the practice, as have many local Gazans and former Israeli hostages. Even the Palestinian Authority acknowledges Hamas uses human shields. Just last month an international aid agency admitted Hamas had disguised itself as its aid workers in an attempt to carry out an attack.
Lie #11: “…allegations Hamas has denied.”
Hamas has also admitted, and even publicly boasted about, using human shields. So why did CNN choose to mention only the self-serving denials?
Lie #12: “An already bleak humanitarian situation became even more dire earlier this year, when Israel imposed an 11-week blockade on all aid to Gaza in early March.”
Curiously, CNN omits that Israel was not the only one to impose a temporary halt on the delivery of aid to Gaza. So, too, did the United Nations itself. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “personally blocked hundreds of aid trucks, ordering them held unless Israel reinstated UNRWA, despite UNICEF and World Food Program (WFP) being capable of moving the humanitarian supplies.”
Lie #13: “Tuesday’s UN report said that Israel’s decision to allow a small amount of aid into Gaza was a ‘facade’ to mislead the international community as it continues to ‘impose starvation and inhumane living conditions on the Palestinians.’”
According to the World Food Programme, “more than 62,000 metric tons” of humanitarian food assistance “is required every month” for Gaza. Between August 16 and September 16, a total of 117,600 tons of food aid was delivered. The “small amount of aid” is roughly the equivalent of 4,400 calories of food per person per day – more than twice the daily recommended amount.
Lie #14: “Israel has also refused the entry of formula and special infant milk into Gaza, resulting in the ‘starvation of new-born and young infants,’ the commission said.”
The COI’s sole source for this claim is a Facebook post by Hamas (footnote 337), featuring a video of a noticeably overweight pro-Hamas figure making the claim.
Demonstrating just how little credibility the COI has, it could have fact-checked this claim with another UN institution: UNICEF. On June 23 alone, the UN agency delivered 240 tons of baby food into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing. According to COGAT, which tracks every piece of aid entering Gaza, as of August 3 over 4,000 tons of baby food and formula had “entered Gaza recently.”
This morning, 240 tons (over a half million pounds) of baby food entered the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing. This @UNICEF delivery is part of an ongoing effort to address humanitarian needs.
Recently, over 1,000 tons of baby food and infant formula have been… pic.twitter.com/hGLCcbvmYP
— COGAT (@cogatonline) June 23, 2025
Lie #15: “‘As early as 7 October 2023, Israeli officials made statements that indicated their intention to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a group,’ the report said.”
It is revealing that those who promote the “genocide” libel consistently point to the same handful of quotes, none of which actually withstand the slightest amount of scrutiny. When it comes to supposedly genocidal quotes by Israeli leaders like Isaac Herzog and Yoav Gallant, the surrounding context – selectively omitted by the COI – entirely contradicts any suggestion of genocidal intent. Gallant did not refer to Palestinians as “human animals,” but rather to Hamas – “the ISIS of Gaza” – as human animals over what they had done in Kibbutz Be’eri, where he was speaking. Nor did Herzog’s speech say all of Palestinians were to be targeted. In the same speech, he repeatedly insisted Israel has and would operate “according to the rules of international law,” and then – upon request for clarification moments later – made it clear he did not mean all Gazans were legitimate targets.
That CNN and Nicholls would uncritically amplify this demonstrably false claim demonstrates a failure to practice journalism.