"Unless the CBC considers injuries to five Israelis more important than the killing of one Palestinian, this omission is inexcusable. You should have also mentioned that Israel has maintained a brutal military occupation over Palestinians for 56 years. Such context is essential for listeners to understand that Palestinian violence is a direct result of raids, arrests, and violence by Israeli forces, not to mention destructive and violent rampages by illegal Israeli settlers."
April 25, 2023
To:
Tom Harrington, Host, The World This Hour
Dear Mr. Harrington,
I’m writing to you on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME, https://www.cjpme.org) to express my concern for a segment from The World This Hour aired by CBC News Radio One CBY on April 24, 2023.
The segment featured a summary of global news from around the world, including the death of a Palestinian man who was shot after he drove his car into a crowd on a street in Jerusalem. The segment however is one-sided and fails to provide important context.
The transcript of the segment reads:
“…a car-ramming attack has injured 5 people in Central Jerusalem police say the car hit pedestrians near a busy market now the assailant was a 39-year-old Palestinian man from occupied East Jerusalem. He was shot and killed at the scene by a civilian. The attack comes as Israel marks Memorial Day where they remember fallen soldiers as well as victims of other attacks.”
The segment fails to mention that the car-ramming incident was preceded by a raid on the Aqbat Jabr refugee camp near the occupied West Bank in which Israeli forces killed Suleiman Ayesh Awaid and wounded three other Palestinian men.
Unless the CBC considers injuries to five Israelis more important than the killing of one Palestinian, this omission is inexcusable. You should have also mentioned that Israel has maintained a brutal military occupation over Palestinians for 56 years. Such context is essential for listeners to understand that Palestinian violence is a direct result of raids, arrests, and violence by Israeli forces, not to mention destructive and violent rampages by illegal Israeli settlers.
To ignore or choose not to mention the reasons why Palestinians may resort to violence provides a one-sided perspective that lacks important context to the relationship between the Israeli government, the Israeli military forces, and the Palestinians. More importantly, it obscures the asymmetrical nature of Israeli violence in a period that has been the deadliest for Palestinians living in the West Bank in the last two decades, where at least 80 civilians including 17 children have been killed.
I hope that future news segments on CBC Radio One The World This Hour are balanced and provide the necessary context to better understand the complete story.
Should you wish, you can contact me at 438-380-5410 for more information.
Sincerely,
Tayla Shair
Media Analyst, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East