"Any mention whatsoever of Israel’s “Operation Break the Wave” continues to evade AP’s reporting. I could find no evidence that AP has even once mentioned the Operation. By failing to name that Israel’s “near daily raids” are part of a deliberate, documented military strategy obscures the reality that these attacks on Palestinians are not mere reactions, but part of a planned military operation that is largely offensive by design."
August 29, 2023
To:
Nasser Nasser, Journalist, Associated Press
Josef Federman, News Director, Associated Press
Paul Berton, Editor-in-Chief, Hamilton Spectator
Dear Mr. Nasser, Mr. Federman, and Mr. Berton,
I'm writing on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME, https://www.cjpme.org) to express concern about a paragraph in the AP article by Nasser Nasser, “A Palestinian dies a month after being shot during an Israeli raid in the West Bank,” published August 26 by the Hamilton Spectator.
The paragraph in question reads:
“Since early 2022, Israel has been carrying out near daily raids in the West Bank in response to a series of deadly Palestinian attacks. It says the raids are meant to crack down on Palestinians [sic] militants and said they are necessary because the Palestinian Authority is too weak.”
Explanations like this have appeared in numerous AP articles over the course of the last year. The description is dangerously one-sided and reductive. It portrays Palestinians as the cause of violence, despite the reality that Israeli military forces are systematically attacking Palestinian towns and cities. These attacks have caused significant casualties, including civilians, as is well documented by B’Tselem and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). As OCHA reports, over 7,000 Palestinians were injured in the first 8 months of the year in the West Bank alone. The vast majority of these casualties occurred during Israeli military raids.
Any mention whatsoever of Israel’s “Operation Break the Wave” continues to evade AP’s reporting. I could find no evidence that AP has even once mentioned the Operation. By failing to name that Israel’s “near daily raids” are part of a deliberate, documented military strategy obscures the reality that these attacks on Palestinians are not mere reactions, but part of a planned military operation that is largely offensive by design.
The AP’s failure to name this operation in any of its reporting is confounding given that the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have announced the Operation publicly.[1] In their press release, the IDF makes explicit that the Operation is “a counterterrorism operation conducted to thwart future attacks.” (italics added) This aspect of the Operation is obscured by AP’s reporting, which again makes it sound as if these attacks are strictly reactive.
The view that these raids are “in response to a series of deadly Palestinian attacks” is a story being told by the Israeli military. Historian and scholar Vijay Prashad argues that Operation Break the Wave is not in response to Palestinian violence, but to habbat sha’biyya (‘popular uprisings’).[2] Operation Break the Wave began in February 2022, which follows the wave of Palestinian uprisings that were seen throughout 2021. These uprisings were largely guided by “The Manifest of Dignity and Hope,” published by Palestinian Activists in May 2021. To consistently ignore these uprisings and only mention “deadly Palestinian attacks” is an omission that, through the course of repetition, develops into a dramatic form of media one-sidedness that contributes to prejudice and even racism against Palestinians and their narratives.
In order to present a full and fair picture of Israel’s actions, you should make reference to Operation Break the Wave and clarify its purpose — namely that it is an offensive campaign by design, not merely reactive.
Please feel free to contact me at 438-380-5410 for more information or additional comment.
Sincerely,
Jason Toney
Director of Media Advocacy, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East
[1] IDF, “One Year Since Operation Break the Wave,” March 31, 2023, https://www.idf.il/en/articles/2023/one-year-since-operation-break-the-wave/.
[2] “Writing About a Joy That Invades Jenin,” Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, February 2, 2023, https://thetricontinental.org/newsletterissue/palestine/.