"The total absence of any reference to Palestinians in this article is unjustifiable. The distinction your article draws “between those who want Israel to be a Western-facing liberal democracy and those who want to emphasize the country’s more conservative Jewish character” does not concern Jews alone."
September 28, 2023
To:
Linda Oland, Director of News & Information Programming, CP24
Tia Goldenberg, Reporter, Associated Press
Moshe Edri, Reporter, Associated Press
Dear Linda Oland, Tia Goldenberg, and Moshe Edri,
I am writing on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME, cjpme.org) to express concern about your September 28 article, “Israel’s High Court Hears a Challenge to a Law That Makes It Harder to Remove Netanyahu from Office.”
The total absence of any reference to Palestinians in this article is unjustifiable.
The distinction your article draws “between those who want Israel to be a Western-facing liberal democracy and those who want to emphasize the country’s more conservative Jewish character” does not concern Jews alone. Palestinian citizens of Israel and all those who live in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are governed by the Government of Israel, and the anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab character of this governance demands coverage.
You could refer to the Palestinian element of this crisis with the language of the human rights community, which increasingly asserts that Israel is not a democracy but rather an apartheid state (see, for instance, Amnesty International’s conclusions to this effect).
You could refer to the Palestinian element of this crisis with the language of established media organizations. Even resolutely pro-Israel Canadian media outlets like the National Post cover this (see this story of theirs, for example, for the following quote): “Rights groups and others have compared the division [in Israeli political governance] along ethnic lines to ‘apartheid’” – a state of affairs which these judicial changes aim to cement.
But to not refer to the Palestinias at all in your coverage is simply unjustifiable.
We urge you to add credible material on the Palestinian (or anti-Palestinian) element of this story, both in correcting this story and in informing your future coverage.
Feel free to contact me at 438-380-5410 if you would like to discuss this further.
Sincerely,
Dan Freeman-Maloy
PhD, University of Exeter
Director of Strategic Operations
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East/
Canadiens pour la Justice et la Paix au Moyen-Orient