Years go by, but the same words are used time and again. Like those received in January 2004 by Le Monde's editor dealing with reader correspondence, a position then held by Robert Solé: "Your one-sided treatment of Middle Eastern news is illustrated in turn by shocking silences and incorrect, deliberately manipulative adjectives," wrote an incensed reader, in a letter critiquing the paper's coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The address these letters are sent to may have changed as Le Monde moved around Paris, from Rue des Italiens to Rue Falguière, from Boulevard Auguste-Blanqui to Avenue Pierre-Mendès-France, but the accusations remain the same, initiated by two seemingly irreconcilable parties – although Israel's proponents are by far the more virulent and obstinate. Everything published about this conflict in these pages is relentlessly scrutinized, dissected and analyzed.

Passionate attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has always been a constant within Le Monde's diverse community of readers, not to mention those who don't read the paper, but nevertheless have an opinion on its coverage. No other international issue elicits the same fervent and regular response. Which side did that reader in 2004 belong to? More on that later.

A somber prophecy

The tragedy that has been dramatically rekindled by the attack on Israeli civilians by Hamas militiamen on October 7, 2023, then by the massacre of Palestinian civilians during the Israeli army's retaliation, and is still underway seven months later, had been brewing before Le Monde was founded. As early as October 2, 1945, it was present in the paper's "foreign bulletin" – an unsigned editorial occupying the left column of the front page.

The Second World War had just ended, and the Cold War had not yet begun. This bulletin was entitled "The Palestinian Crisis." At the time, the term "Palestinian" referred to the geographical area of the British Mandate still in force. Those campaigning for the "Jewish home" – first mentioned in the Balfour Declaration of 1917 – to take on the features of a state were referred to as "Palestinian Jews."

"The situation resulting from the conflict between Arabs and Jews in Palestine has reached a critical point," the editorial began. At issue were the new waves of migrants made up of Holocaust survivors, who were heightening tensions with the defensive Arab population. "Which solution will be adopted? Partition of Palestine into two states, one Jewish, the other Arab? Unlikely, given the opposition on both sides. The creation of a 'binational' community, whose members would have equal rights? This solution, which is advocated by some Brits, would need further clarification."

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