"Relatedly, there is no Palestinian perspective whatsoever, despite their central importance in these reforms. The only criticism mentioned is that it will "concentrate power in the hands of Netanyahu and his allies.” Relatedly, there is no Palestinian perspective whatsoever, despite their central importance in these reforms."
September 12, 2023
To:
Linda Oland, Director of News & Information Programming, CP24
Kathleen Peroff, News Writer, CP24
Ryan Smith, Producer & Guest Booker, CP24
Dear Linda Oland, Kathleen Peroff and Ryan Smith,
I’m writing to you on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME, https://www.cjpme.org) to express our concerns regarding a segment on your September 12, 2023 broadcast which was aired around 10:14 am.
The segment reports on Israel’s Supreme Court case on the legality of Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul, the protests that resulted from it and the subsequent appeals. While it presents the "supporters" and "critics" arguments of the overhaul, it completely fails to mention who the "supporters" and the "critics" are. Relatedly, there is no Palestinian perspective whatsoever, despite their central importance in these reforms. The only criticism mentioned is that it will "concentrate power in the hands of Netanyahu and his allies.”
While the segment is ultimately brief, failing to add a Palestinian perspective to this issue leads to a highly incomplete picture of the judicial overhaul’s implications. In fact, Palestinians, who are under Israeli control, are largely excluded from its democracy. Of the 6.8 million Palestinians in Israel and Palestine, only a small minority of them (1.6 million) hold Israeli citizenship and have the right to vote in national elections (albeit with a second-class status and significant restrictions). The remaining 5.2 million Palestinians under Israeli military occupation in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza, have no right to vote for the government that rules them.[1]
Further, the criticism doesn’t shed light on the judicial overhaul’s impact on the threats of settlement expansion and annexation. It is a widely held view that annexation and judicial reform are inextricably bound. Despite the fact that Israel’s Supreme Court is widely seen by Palestinians and Israeli human rights groups as a whitewashing mechanism for Israel’s crimes against Palestinians,[2] it has nonetheless provided some limited restraints on Israel’s settlement enterprise, as recently reported by the New York Times.[3] The engineer of the current reforms, Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin, has publicly supported reforming the courts in order to expand annexation efforts.[4]
We expect that a Palestinian perspective, a critical aspect of Israel’s judicial reforms, and the broader impact on Palestinians generally, will be covered in future reporting.
Thank you for making these changes. Should you wish, you can contact me at 438-380-5410 for more information.
Sincerely,
Fatima Haidar
Media Analyst, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East
[1] Human Rights Watch, “A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and persecution,” April 27, 2021, https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid- and-persecution
[2] B’Tselem, “The Supreme Court of the Occupation,” February 25, 2020, https://www.btselem.org/supreme_court_of_occupation
[3] Kingsley, P., & Kershner, I. (2023, February 13). Netanyahu's judicial overhaul sparks huge protests in Israel. The New York Times. Retrieved February 14, 2023, from https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/13/world/middleeast/israel-judicial-protests-netanyahu.html
[4] Omer-Man, M. (2023, February 13). Why Israel's 'democratic' opposition is doomed. DAWN. Retrieved February 14, 2023, from https://dawnmena.org/why-israels-democratic-opposition-is-doomed/