Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
The newspaper has lost credibility – and writers including David Baddiel – after a contributor was accused of making up Gaza war reports
Elon Perry was the kind of journalist every editor dreams of: a freelance reporter with a knack for sensational scoops.
Writing for The Jewish Chronicle newspaper, Perry, who claimed to have had a distinguished military and academic career, wrote a series of dramatic articles about the war in Gaza.
Described as a “British-based Israeli journalist,” Perry seemed to have access to top-level intelligence sources, who supplied him with eye-opening details about the conflict.
But the alarm was sounded after an article earlier this month. Perry claimed that a document had been found in the Gaza strip, which proved that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was planning to smuggle himself out of Gaza to Iran via the Philadelphi corridor, along with some of the remaining hostages kidnapped on October 7.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) denied such a document existed. Reports in the Israeli media accused the pieces of being “fabrications”.
The Jewish Chronicle conducted an investigation into Perry and his background. He claimed to have been a soldier involved in the Entebbe raid in 1976.
The investigation concluded with Perry getting the sack, amid accusations that he was a fabulist. His birth name, as revealed by an Israeli TV channel last week, is Eli Yifrach. He told The Sunday Times he had changed it after moving to the US and being told that his first name sounded like a “girl name in America”.
Perry’s website lists him as a “lecturer, historian, author and tour guide”, who specialises in the history and politics of the Middle East. His Jewish Chronicle biography said he had been a commando with the Golani Brigade of the IDF, serving for 28 years, before becoming a lecturer at Tel Aviv university. In total he wrote nine pieces for The Jewish Chronicle, all of which have been taken down.
On September 9, an investigation by Hazinor, an Israeli news programme, confronted Perry about some of his claims.
There was no record of him having worked at the university. Perry says he “was never a professor at Tel Aviv University, but studied there for a bachelor’s degree. My publisher made a mistake” which was “already fixed”.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, Perry admitted some biological inaccuracies, such as a statement that he had taken part in Operation Entebbe, adding that he had “yelled” at his website developer after the inaccuracies were flagged to him by journalists.
Perry says: “I was indeed part of the operation as a reserve force that remained on Israeli soil on standby in case something went wrong. The website builder made a mistake by not explaining it correctly.”
But he said that he stood by his story on Sinwar, although it was only based on information provided by one source. It was not enough for The Jewish Chronicle. In a statement on Friday, the paper said: “The Jewish Chronicle has concluded a thorough investigation into freelance journalist Elon Perry, which commenced after allegations were made about aspects of his record. While we understand he did serve in the Israel Defense Forces, we were not satisfied with some of his claims.
“We have therefore removed his stories from our website and ended any association with Mr Perry.”
The paper added: “The Jewish Chronicle maintains the highest journalistic standards in a highly contested information landscape and we deeply regret the chain of events that led to this point. We apologise to our loyal readers and have reviewed our internal processes so that this will not be repeated.”
The incident has brought about an unprecedented crisis in the paper. Over the weekend four of the paper’s star columnists, Hadley Freeman, Jonathan Freedland, David Baddiel and David Aaranovitch, announced they would be standing down, questioning the paper’s general editorial tone and standards as well as this specific case.
In a letter to the editor, Jake Wallis Simons, also a Telegraph contributor, which he later published on X, Freedland said “the latest scandal brings great disgrace on the paper – publishing fabricated stories and showing the thinnest form of contrition – but it is only the latest”. Quitting was particularly poignant for him, he added, as he had contributed to the paper for 26 years, following his father, who first wrote for The Jewish Chronicle in 1951.
I have today told the editor of the Jewish Chronicle that I can no longer continue my relationship with the paper. Here is my letter to him pic.twitter.com/H5FkXJnv16
For Freedland, as for the other three columnists, the Perry case was the last straw. Critics argue that under Wallis Simons’ leadership, the paper has become more Right-wing and ideological – increasingly aligned with Benjamin Netanyahu – a shift, it is claimed, that has been all the more pronounced since October 7.
Wallis Simons has said that Netanyahu is “hardly a blameless figure” but warned: “These days, ‘Netanyahu’ has joined ‘Zionists’ as a cipher for ‘the Jews’, an argot of anti-Semitism that allows a bigot to express hatred without censure … is he really that warmongering demon of Jerusalem, with a disturbing appetite for young blood? Is he not merely a flawed politician fighting against a deadly terrorist group?”
The Elon Perry story that prompted the investigation was suspiciously in line with points Netanyahu was raising around the same time. An article in +972, an Israeli magazine, implied that Netanyahu might be behind the leaks himself. Perry, however, said at the weekend: “I don’t trust him. I never voted for him. I don’t support him. It’s nonsense.”
Freeman, an author and columnist for The Sunday Times, said she had resigned because “recent events have made it impossible for me to stay”.
“The Jewish Chronicle is the mainstream national newspaper for Jews in this country, and Jews represent barely half a per cent of the British population,” she tells the Telegraph. “So it is important that it represents the plurality of views of British Jews, not the Israeli government.”
She says the Elon Perry case was the last straw, but she had been growing steadily disillusioned with the paper’s leadership.
“It was an accretion of things,” she says. “I was increasingly frustrated with the lack of transparency about who owns The Jewish Chronicle, which was something I and other columnists had talked with the editor about several times over the past year or so. But we could tell ourselves we were still working to help the mainstream national Jewish newspaper in this country.
“It felt like it was time to quit because contrary to what people think, Jewish journalists are not all in the pay of Israel. Hopefully, the fact a bunch of us have quit over what we saw as The Jewish Chronicle running Netanyahu propaganda proves that.”
Criticism of The Jewish Chronicle’s ownership structure, in which several key figures remain anonymous, has been brewing for some time.
The paper was founded in 1841, making it the oldest continually published Jewish newspaper in the world.
Published weekly, the “organ of British Jewry” has long been an important institution within the Jewish community, attracting eminent contributors and publishing on a wide range of topics.
In April 2020, it entered voluntary liquidation before being saved by a consortium of backers. The outgoing chairman, Alan Jacobs, claimed the move was a “shameful attempt to hijack” the paper. Wallis Simons, a journalist and novelist, became editor in 2021.
He has been a frequent contributor to news programmes, particularly since October 7, often arguing Israel’s case, although he has also been critical of Netanyahu, too.
Since 2020, the only shareholder and director was Robbie Gibb, a former Downing Street comms director. But he was not bankrolling the loss-making paper, which according to its latest accounts required a loan of £3.5 million. In March, the paper announced it would be becoming a charitable trust. Gibb recently resigned as director, replaced by the Labour peer Lord Austin, Jonathan Kandel, a prominent lawyer, and Joseph Dweck, a senior rabbi. The shareholding was split up, too. But the people ultimately responsible for The JC’s debts remain unknown.
In February, The Sunday Times’ Whitehall editor, Gabriel Pogrund, wrote that the “coarseness and aggression of The JC’s current leadership” did a “disservice” to the community. He added that it was an “oxymoron” that the paper could not disclose its ownership. In an article for Prospect about The Jewish Chronicle earlier this year, Alan Rusbridger, the former editor of The Guardian, suggested the paper was backed by an American billionaire, Paul E Singer. A spokesman for Singer denied the claims.
Not all of the contributors have resigned. “For me, this incident is not reason enough to give up on a paper that’s been a powerful and essential voice for our Jewish community for 180 years,” says Naomi Greenaway, deputy editor of the Telegraph Magazine and Jewish Chronicle columnist.
“But I have a lot of respect for the journalists who have resigned, and I’m glad it’s triggered The Jewish Chronicle to interrogate their editing processes. The shame is that for a paper that does give a platform to those on all sides of the political spectrum, these resignations will ironically mean it loses that balance on the Left.
“From my experience, they are a tiny team, juggling a huge amount on a shoestring budget and generally the calibre of content punches way above what would be expected from their resources. But they’ve dropped the ball and they know they have massive lessons to learn from it.”
Perry says: “The Israeli Leftist media are accusing me of supporting Netanyahu and trying to silence me by attacking me through writing details that are marginal that are not related to the essence of the article.
“I am standing by my stories 100 per cent and will never reveal my source.
“The JC made a huge mistake with its statements. I was asked to reveal my source and when I refused explaining that a journalist does not reveal a source, JC threatened to fire me if I didn’t provide my source. I replied that I was ready to go to prison but not to reveal my source.”
He adds: “All this saga started when Benjamin Netanyahu instructed his wife to quote from my Jewish Chronicle article about Yahya Sinwar’s plan to smuggle hostages out of Gaza to Iran, and Netanhayu used it to justify his argument for keeping the Philadelphi Corridor. If my scoop was false then the Prime Minister and his wife wouldn’t use it, would they?”
Wallis Simons was approached for comment. Posting on X, he said: “Obviously it’s every newspaper editor’s worst nightmare to be deceived by a journalist.
“The @JewishChron has cut all ties with the freelancer in question and his work has now been removed from our website. Readers can be assured that stronger internal procedures are being implemented.
“I understand why some columnists have decided to step back from the paper. I am grateful for their contributions and hope that, in time, some of them will feel able to return.
“I take full responsibility for the mistakes that have been made and I will take equal responsibility for the task of making sure nothing like this can happen again.”
Obviously it’s every newspaper editor’s worst nightmare to be deceived by a journalist.The @JewishChron has cut all ties with the freelancer in question and his work has now been removed from our website. Readers can be assured that stronger internal procedures are being…
Pressure for The Jewish Chronicle to reveal its true owners will only grow, especially as the war in Gaza continues. Other columnists may yet follow Freeman & co. Until then, the senior staff may find themselves thinking on old journalistic advice: if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. And always check your sources.