Knight Foundation Awards Grant to Pro-Israel Group Honest Reporting

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Honest Reporting, a self-described media watchdog headquartered in New York, Jerusalem, and Toronto, asserts that its aim is to expose “media bias, challenge misinformation, and ensure that reporting on Israel is factual, contextual, and accountable.” In practice, it operates as a pressure group, scrutinizing international media coverage of Israel, generating reports that criticize portrayals deemed unfavorable, embedding journalists within carefully curated pro-Israel perspectives, and mobilizing its subscribers to contact newsrooms until corrections, retractions, or rewordings are enacted.

This approach has resulted in the dismissal of journalists at various publications. However, since October 7, 2023, Honest Reporting’s operations have entered significantly darker territory, directly contributing to the assassination of at least one journalist, Hassan Eslaiah—a freelance photographer and director of the Gaza-based Alam24 news agency whose images were published by outlets like the Associated Press and CNN.

The campaign against Eslaiah was not an isolated incident. Honest Reporting has systematically targeted journalists and news organizations—DropSite News included—across multiple platforms and countries, using consistent tactics: publishing allegations questioning individual journalists’ supposed ties to Hamas or other armed groups, labeling their reporting as propaganda or “antisemitic,” and activating its subscriber network to contact news outlets directly. This approach has resulted in many Palestinian journalists being depicted as combatants.

Despite its history of targeting and endangering reporters, in 2023, Honest Reporting’s Israeli organization—operating under the name Divuach Ne’eman R’’A—received an “emergency” grant of $100,000 from the Knight Foundation, a highly regarded U.S.-based foundation known for advocating press freedom and journalist safety. This grant, documented in Honest Reporting’s Israeli nonprofit filings for 2024, does not appear in the Knight Foundation’s financial reports for that year or on its official website.

The Knight Foundation states that it primarily funds U.S.-based organizations, and generally prefers not to finance international programs or groups, thereby making grants outside the U.S. rare and exceptional. Knight’s website indicates that “most of our grantmaking is tied to strategies with defined goals and outcomes” and that funding “typically emerges through relationships, research and ongoing work,” with most grants initiated by the Foundation rather than through open applications.

When contacted for clarification, Atena Sherry, the Knight Foundation’s communications director, initially denied that Knight provided funding to Honest Reporting: “Knight Foundation did not grant any funds to Honest Reporting, nor has the foundation directed any Knight funds to Honest Reporting” through any intermediary, Sherry informed DropSite. In a later statement, Sherry reaffirmed, “We reviewed all documentation. Knight Foundation has never provided any funding to Honest Reporting.”

However, according to Honest Reporting, “the grantor, Jewish Federations of North America and United Israel Appeal, informed Divuach Ne’eman R”A and HonestReporting.com, Inc. that a donation of $100,000 was made ‘on the recommendation of the donor, The Knight Foundation.’ Honest Reporting further asserted that “staff from Divuach Ne’eman R”A and HonestReporting.com, Inc. remained in direct communication with Knight Foundation staff throughout the grant process and the resultant programs.”

When DropSite inquired further concerning Honest Reporting’s claim, which contradicted Knight’s response, the Knight Foundation acknowledged that it did allocate funds for Media Central, an Honest Reporting initiative designed to facilitate access for international journalists. “Knight Foundation indeed made a one-time, emergency grant of $100,000 in November 2023 to Media Central, aimed at supporting a specific project: providing international journalists with access they otherwise would not have to report accurately from ground zero in the West Bank,” stated Alejandro de Onis, vice president for communications. “Neither the grant agreement nor the grant file refers to Honest Reporting.”

In contrast to Gaza, the West Bank has remained accessible for international journalists, raising questions about what access Media Central was supposedly providing beyond what reporters could achieve independently, and whether such access constituted embedded reporting alongside the Israeli military.

Knight declined to respond to further inquiries regarding the specific reporting funded by its grant or explain how it could have been unaware that Media Central was a program affiliated with Honest Reporting.

Through the Media Central project, Honest Reporting organizes press tours, briefings, and curated access to Israel for international correspondents, presenting itself as a neutral resource while effectively functioning as a mechanism to influence journalists’ perceptions and coverage of the country. Laura Cornfield, Honest Reporting’s director of press relations, oversees this program.

In Honest Reporting’s 2023 first-quarter impact report, Cornfield noted: “Journalists engaged with locals to learn how the Lions’ Den terrorist group was utilizing Nablus as its command center. They were subsequently briefed by the IDF to comprehend the security threats posed to Israeli civilians,” proudly claiming that “MediaCentral staff enabled exclusive access to these once elusive voices. The tour proved immensely popular, leading to its repetition with three groups and the arrangement of three additional one-on-one tours.”

In the second quarter’s impact report, Cornfield stated that the Media Central program “took foreign media outlets on exclusive expeditions to areas of terror activity, such as Nablus and Jenin, allowing an up-close perspective on the challenges faced by Israeli security forces and their responses to the threats.” Prominent international media organizations like the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, the Financial Times, and CNN have reportedly participated in these events.

The impact report chronicled a media tour along the Israel-Lebanon border, featuring statements from Israeli military officials such as Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi and Military Intelligence Directorate chief Aharon Haliva about Hezbollah. It also included a discussion on “crime in the Arab sector,” mentioning that journalists had visited “a field tour in Umm Al Fahm and Jaffa of Nazareth to examine the escalated crime rate,” focusing on largely Palestinian towns within Israel.

More recently, Media Central has hosted international journalists during tours to the Al Aqsa compound and Western Wall Tunnels in occupied East Jerusalem, as well as to northern Israel. Exclusive briefings for international journalists have been organized with senior Israeli political figures, including a recent lunch in Tel Aviv featuring former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren and an “exclusive dinner” with Brigadier General (Res.) Pinchas (Pini) Yungman, a figure with notable leadership roles in the Israeli Air Force and in the Israeli defense firm Rafael.

Curiously, none of the briefings or meetings facilitated by Media Central appear to have been led by Palestinian representatives.

“We don’t claim to be a news organization.”

On November 8, 2023—one month into the ongoing conflict in Gaza and in the same month as the Knight Foundation grant—Honest Reporting published what it deemed an exposé on its website. The article displayed photographs of several Palestinian freelance journalists who were covering events near the Gaza border on October 7, including Hassan Eslaiah. It posed inquiries—language the organization later labeled as merely “raising questions”—regarding whether these journalists had prior knowledge about the Hamas attack. The article was later updated with a 2020 photograph of Eslaiah alongside Hamas leader Yayha Sinwar, insinuating guilt by association through mere proximity in the image.

Within hours, Israel’s official X account amplified the post to its 1.8 million followers. The Associated Press reassessed its relationship with Eslaiah and eventually severed ties, stating it found no evidence suggesting he had foreknowledge of the attack aside from what was typically understood by journalists operating in that area. When the AP requested Gil Hoffman, then Honest Reporting’s executive director, to substantiate the allegations, his response was notably striking: “They acted as if we were stating facts instead of asking questions,” Hoffman remarked. “We don’t claim to be a news organization.”

Jonthan Dagher, head of the Middle East desk at Reporters Without Borders (RSF), criticized the Honest Reporting article from November 2023 as “full of conjecture” and “based on circumstantial evidence,” highlighting that it “provoked a chain of responses from Israeli officials and politicians accusing Gazan journalists of affiliations with Hamas.”

RSF subsequently included Honest Reporting in its 2025 list of Press Freedom Predators, stating that the organization “defames media and fosters distrust towards reporters.”

Eighteen months later, in April 2025, an Israeli airstrike targeted a media tent outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, resulting in the deaths of two journalists and injuring eight others, including Eslaiah. The Israeli military publicly announced that Eslaiah had been deliberately targeted, claiming he was a member of the Khan Younis Brigade and had participated in the October 7 attacks. Although Eslaiah survived the strike, he suffered severe injuries, including a fractured skull and burnt skin, losing two of his fingers in the process. He was admitted to Nasser Hospital’s burns unit for recovery. Tragically, on May 13, 2025, while still in the burn unit, an Israeli drone strike claimed Eslaiah’s life. Hours later, the Israeli military confirmed the assassination, referring to him as “Aslih” and sharing a screenshot of Eslaiah from a video posted by Honest Reporting during its “exposé,” stating: “Don’t let Aslih’s press vest mislead you… Journalist? More like terrorist.”

Targeting Palestinian Journalists

Since the onset of the conflict in Gaza, one of Honest Reporting’s primary objectives has been to dispute the records maintained by press freedom organizations documenting Palestinian journalists killed in the Gaza Strip. The organization has initiated a concentrated pressure campaign against the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), who holds one of the most widely acknowledged lists of media personnel fatalities in Gaza. Furthermore, it has exerted pressure on additional press freedom entities, including Reporters Without Borders and the International Federation of Journalists.

On June 25, CPJ announced it would be “conducting a comprehensive review of its database concerning journalists killed during the Israel-Gaza War.” Honest Reporting promptly claimed victory, asserting that the review was initiated due to Honest Reporting putting the organization in an “untenable position.”

CPJ, however, refuted Honest Reporting’s assertions, clarifying that their independent reviews had prompted the database reassessment, not external pressure: “The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an autonomous organization. We conduct independent research and report on assaults against journalists and media personnel. When new information is available, we refine our documentation. Our review of the casualties from the Israel-Gaza conflict was a response to new insights released by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad that identified some previously listed individuals as combatants. Honest Reporting’s campaign played no role in this review process or our decision to amend any names from the list.”

Although CPJ is a significant recipient of funding from the Knight Foundation, it did not respond to inquiries regarding the Foundation’s funding of Honest Reporting.

“We denounce any misrepresentation of our processes to serve political agendas or obscure the fact that Israel has killed more journalists than any other nation and has frequently been the leading killer of journalists for the past three years,” stated CPJ in their response.

Regarding the evident conflict of interest in funding both a press freedom organization that manages a database of journalists killed by Israel and a pressure entity focusing on Palestinian journalists, the Knight Foundation affirmed, “The funding allocated to Media Central was exclusively intended to facilitate journalists’ reporting access in challenging environments, with no ongoing relationship. Knight’s grant records do not show any reference to efforts related to CPJ, nor has the Foundation ever financed any advocacy targeted at CPJ.”

On the same day that CPJ disclosed its review of the Gaza database, Jacob Weisberg, the chair of CPJ’s board, emailed fellow board members, proposing the formation of a “special task force to reassess the question of ‘Who is a journalist?’”

According to reporting from the Columbia Journal Review, Weisberg’s initiative was separate from the database review, stemming from a board discussion surrounding an article from the right-leaning Washington Free Beacon that largely reiterated Honest Reporting’s critiques of CPJ and other news entities reporting critically on Israel, including DropSite.

Nika Soon-Shiong, DropSite News’ publisher and a member of CPJ’s board, expressed concern over Weisberg’s communication, requesting a vote on the proposal from the entire board, as outlined in a publicly posted letter. She was subsequently informed by Weisberg that her tenure on the board had concluded. On July 1, the board convened for an emergency meeting and voted to affirm its “existing definition of who is a journalist.”

Broader Influence Network

Honest Reporting’s ongoing efforts to forge connections between journalists and armed factions, such as Hamas, are particularly noteworthy in light of the organization’s direct affiliations with AIPAC, the Israeli government, and the Israeli military, all of which continue to carry out a genocide in Gaza.

Before co-founding Honest Reporting, Lenny Ben-David dedicated 25 years to AIPAC, including 15 years leading its Jerusalem office, later serving as deputy chief of mission at the Israeli embassy in Washington. He has proudly recounted how an early campaign by Honest Reporting crashed CNN’s servers. The organization he helped establish is currently led by Jacki Alexander, who spent around 15 years at AIPAC before taking on a role aimed at broadening Honest Reporting’s reach within the United States.

National Development Director Rebecca Shimonovitc previously served over eight years as an AIPAC regional director before joining the fundraising team at Honest Reporting. Justin Pozmanter spent more than a decade in AIPAC’s political department before relocating to Israel, where he was a senior foreign policy advisor to Israeli government minister Tzachi Hanegbi, subsequently joining Honest Reporting. David Barish, the treasurer of Honest Reporting’s U.S. branch, has held positions on the boards of AIPAC’s Houston Council, Friends of the IDF, the Jewish Federation, Anti-Defamation League, and the United Israel Appeal. He is also listed as a director of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a pro-Israel think tank. Laura Cornfield, the organization’s director of press relations, also oversees the Media Central initiative and routinely participates in high-profile gatherings within Israeli political circles, posing and smiling with U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and Sara Netanyahu.

The connections to the Israeli military are equally evident. Numerous staff members have served in the Israeli military—a fact that Honest Reporting acknowledges “shouldn’t be surprising” considering Israel’s mandatory service requirements. Gil Hoffman, a past executive director and current board member, for instance, served in an Israeli army artillery unit and later as a reserve spokesperson for the military after emigrating to Israel, before beginning his journalism career at the Jerusalem Post. Editorial Director Simon Plosker has also held a position in the Israeli military’s press office. Rachel Safdie, who appears as a reporter in Honest Reporting’s social media, spent over two years in the Israeli military press office, where she led the Iranian-language social media desk.

In response to inquiries, Honest Reporting denied any formal ties with the Israeli military: “There is no formal affiliation or partnership between the IDF and Divuach Ne’eman R”A or HonestReporting.com, Inc.”

Launched in 2000 in association with the Jerusalem Fund of Aish HaTorah, an Orthodox Jewish outreach organization aiming to encourage secular Jews to embrace religious practices, Honest Reporting has also established one of the world’s most extensive pro-Israel advocacy networks. The group’s initial executive director was Irwin Katsof, who was concurrently serving as president of the Jerusalem Fund. In 2001, the Jerusalem Fund loaned the then-nascent Middle East Media Watch (Honest Reporting’s initial name) $158,724, with an additional $48,100 grant provided for the following year.

Honest Reporting’s 2006 tax records list Ephraim Shore, overseeing Aish’s operations in Israel, as president. Shore is a co-founder of the Hasbara Fellowships program—an advocacy initiative developed by Aish HaTorah for the Israeli Foreign Ministry aimed at combating the perceived anti-Israel sentiment on university campuses globally. His twin brother, Raphael Shore, produced the controversial 2005 film “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West,” which Honest Reporting initially promoted on its site and listed as an associated project before later dismissing any involvement in the production.

When the Israeli Foreign Ministry sought to counter what it deemed anti-Israel sentiment on university campuses internationally, it turned to Aish HaTorah to design and implement the program, which sends numerous student leaders to Israel for advocacy training. Multiple individuals currently employed at Honest Reporting have worked as instructors for the Hasbara Fellowship.

The financial ties between Aish HaTorah and Honest Reporting have not been merely historical. Canadian tax documents indicate that Honest Reporting Canada made a donation of $15,000 to Aish HaTorah as recently as 2023, reflecting that their institutional relationship persists over two decades following Honest Reporting’s inception.

Honest Reporting’s network reaches some of the most contentious pro-Israel blacklisting initiatives online, such as Canary Mission, the pro-Israel doxxing platform that publishes dossiers on students, academics, and activists accused of anti-Semitism or supporting Palestinian rights. At least one former staff member from Honest Reporting, Zahava Raymond, has worked with Megamot Shalom, the Israeli nonprofit organization financing Canary Mission.

A Widening Operation

According to Honest Reporting’s filings with Israel’s Corporations Authority, 96.6% of the total 2024 budget of 6,040,198 NIS (approximately $1,632,044) derives from foreign contributions. Besides the $100,000 grant from the Knight Foundation, 4,903,640 NIS (around $1,324,950) came directly from Honest Reporting’s U.S. organization, illustrating the Israeli operation’s significant reliance on American funding.

Recent communications from Honest Reporting demonstrate the organization’s escalating ambitions. An update to supporters announced the initiation of “Honest Reporting AI Labs,” a proprietary system created to detect “anti-Israel bias” and intercept narratives “before they gain mainstream acceptance.” This system monitors social media in real-time, tracing what the organization categorizes as “coordinated narrative pipelines,” subsequently sharing its findings with what it calls “strategic communications partners,” including the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

In May, for instance, Rachel O’Donoghue, an Honest Reporting employee, was invited to publish a piece in the Wall Street Journal, contesting Nicolas Kristoff’s article in the New York Times that discussed Israel’s alleged use of sexual violence against Palestinian detainees. The organization’s research has also been referenced in articles printed by the Washington Free Beacon and National Review.

Honest Reporting’s influence stretches into the legislative frameworks of its English-speaking donor base. In 2018, the organization submitted testimony to the UK Parliament’s inquiry into fake news, inaccurately stating that “Honest Reporting is not affiliated with any government, political party, or movement.” This submission was initially omitted from the official record and was only made available following intervention from UK Lawyers for Israel.

The Canadian branch has expressed similar aims. In July 2023, Honest Reporting Canada’s executive director Mike Fegelman stated their intent to “create a digital army for Israel.” A written briefing to Canada’s House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage referred to Palestinian journalists killed by Israel as “so-called journalists” with “ties to Palestinian terrorist organizations,” asserting that media portrayals of Gaza “directly contribute to a rise in anti-Jewish hate crimes.”

One more notable donor identified in Honest Reporting’s 2024 filings is an ambiguously named organization called Canadian Charity Partners, which provided 507,176 NIS (about $137,000). In January 2026, the Canada Revenue Agency revoked Canadian Charity Partners’ charitable status, citing various compliance failures, including engaging in non-charitable activities and lacking proper bookkeeping.

Honest Reporting Canada has initiated its own pressure tactics against journalists and outlets it perceives as biased against Israel, claiming to have instigated the firings of two Palestinian journalists in October 2023, one of whom was on maternity leave at the time. In November 2024, Robert Walker, the group’s assistant director, was arrested and faced 17 criminal charges related to a series of anti-Palestinian graffiti incidents in Toronto, including the phrase “Fuck Gaza.” The charges were withdrawn in March 2025 after a charity payment was made. Walker continues to work for the organization.