Isabel Kershner


Isabel Kershner is a journalist and author who began reporting from Jerusalem for The New York Times in 2007.
Previously, Kershner was Senior Editor, Middle East, The Jerusalem Report magazine. She has also written for The New Republic and provided commentary on Middle East affairs on radio, including the BBC.
Her son served in the Israel Defense Forces.

Personal

Kershner was born in Manchester, England. In April 1992 she married author Hirsh Goodman, a fellow immigrant to Israel; they have two children, Gavriel and Lev.

Bias accusations

Kershner has been accused of pro-Israel bias in her coverage and her hiring to report on Israeli-Palestinian issues has been denounced as conflict of interest since her son has served in the IDF in recent years and her husband, Hirsh Goodman, is an employee at The Institute for National Security Studies, which promotes a better image of Israel, and which Kershner often relies on as a source. Kershner has been a featured speaker in the Israel Hasbara Committee. Her reporting has been denounced by the progressive media watch Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting for allegedly paying disproportionate attention to killings of Israeli soldiers at the expense of Arabs and Iranians, omitting Israeli violations of ceasefires with Hamas, the biggest Gaza militia, and falsely presenting such violations as merely reactions to the actions of Palestinians, and giving free rein for anonymous Israeli sources to defame Palestinian hunger strikes in Israeli prisons as terrorists.
Kershner has also been accused of anti-Israel bias in her coverage of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, a pro-Israel media outfit with a record of improperly manipulating content on Wikipedia, for downplaying Palestinian terrorism, covering up incitement to violence by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and promoting anti-Israel bias using the journalism technique of "first-last reporting".