Peter Beinart
- Role
- Journalist and commentator writing personally, also identifying himself as Jebreal's friend
- Statement date
Peter Beinart on Were Rula Jebreal’s remarks about Hakeem Jeffries racist?
“Rula Jebreal used racist language to criticize Hakeem Jeffries. Her comments were clearly wrong.”
Source and context
Original post
About this source
The complete authored post was retrieved. Beinart calls the words racist and wrong, acknowledges the apology, and asks readers to judge Jebreal's overall work fairly. The combination supports a mixed classification. His statements about Israeli conduct remain attributed. This is a newly recovered September 7 response, not a new September 10 statement.
Before the quotation
Beinart opens by calling the language racist and wrong and saying Jebreal apologized unconditionally.
After the quotation
He describes her work against bigotry and for human rights, asks readers to judge her whole record and returns to his criticism of support for Israel. Those claims remain his views. This September 7 post is newly recovered older material, not a September 10 statement.
How this statement is classified
His full post unequivocally rejects the language. Defending the person’s overall record and asking for decency do not excuse using the words; mixed would conflate evaluation of conduct with evaluation of character.
- Recorded on
- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- Rula Jebreal
Corrections to this statement
These notices document reporting corrections, classification changes, and topic-label updates.
Classification correction
Correction to: Statement by Peter Beinart
- Previous classification
- Mixed or conditional. The full post combines explicit condemnation of the words with a defense of the person and an appeal for fair treatment. Either an unqualified defense or condemnation label would omit a central part of the response.
- Corrected classification
- Condemns. His full post unequivocally rejects the language. Defending the person’s overall record and asking for decency do not excuse using the words; mixed would conflate evaluation of conduct with evaluation of character.
We corrected the editorial classification of Peter Beinart's response about Jebreal’s language about Jeffries. His full post unequivocally rejects the language. Defending the person’s overall record and asking for decency do not excuse using the words; mixed would conflate evaluation of conduct with evaluation of character. This corrects our labeling, not a later change in the speaker's position.
This corrects an editorial classification.
The complete authored post was retrieved. Beinart calls the words racist and wrong, acknowledges the apology, and asks readers to judge Jebreal's overall work fairly. The combination supports a mixed classification. His statements about Israeli conduct remain attributed. This is a newly recovered September 7 response, not a new September 10 statement.
More from this case
"Without acknowledging that history, that is not an apology."Read statement
"Sometimes even our friends can get it wrong. They can stumble over trying to make a point—maybe there's a cultural disconnection."Read statement
"The term that I used to describe him was inappropriate and offensive and should never have been used. I apologize unconditionally."Read statement