"Stating that the pro-Palestine protesters are supporting Hamas is inaccurate to say the least. You can be pro-Palestine and not support Hamas. You can be pro-Palestine and push for a one-state solution with Israel. Most people showing up at these protests want the Israeli occupation to end, which is the sole responsible for how Palestinians in Gaza are treated. Such language discredits the cause of the Palestinian resistance and liberation and adds to the fuel of anti-Palestinian hate."
October 18, 2023
To:
Lynn Saxberg, Journalist, Ottawa Citizen
Nicole Feriancek, Editor-in-chief, Ottawa Citizen
Hannah Daley, News Editor, Ottawa Citizen
Dear Lynn Saxberg, Nicole Feriancek, and Hannah Daley,
I'm writing to express my concern about your article: “Marchers supporting Gaza, Israel stage two demonstrations in capital,” published on October 15 in Ottawa Citizen.
Your article has multiple issues stemming from its one-sidedness and must be corrected. To summarize, you give more voice to pro-Israel protests, although your article is supposed to cover pro-Palestine and pro-Israel demonstrations.
The first issue is that you fail to mention the context in which Gaza is and put the blame on Palestinians for the ongoing situation. You write: “The Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks that sparked the conflict.” However, since 2007, Gaza has been under an air, land, and sea Israeli blockade, and not mentioning it doesn’t help your readers have a fair and balanced viewpoint of everything that has been going on in Palestine for years. You can not explain the October 7 events without providing the full context.
Therefore, I suggest adding this sentence: “Gaza has been under an air, land, and sea Israeli blockade since 2007.”
The second issue is that stating that the pro-Palestine protesters are supporting Hamas is inaccurate to say the least. You can be pro-Palestine and not support Hamas. You can be pro-Palestine and push for a one-state solution with Israel. Most people showing up at these protests want the Israeli occupation to end, which is the sole responsible for how Palestinians in Gaza are treated. Such language discredits the cause of the Palestinian resistance and liberation and adds to the fuel of anti-Palestinian hate.
I, therefore, suggest changing this sentence: “Some of the protesters supporting Hamas in the downtown area was an affront” to “Some of the protesters supporting the ending of the Israeli occupation of Palestine in the downtown area was an affront.”
I also suggest removing Levitan’s following citation: “You either stand with Israel, or you stand with Hamas terrorists.” To publish such a citation is irresponsible considering your journalistic obligations and again only adds to the fuel of anti-Palestinian hate.
The last issue is that you could have added more Palestinian voices to help your readers have a fair and balanced viewpoint of the “All out for Gaza” protest and not overshadow them with comments such as those by Levitan that you cite. Only three mid-article paragraphs were written about the “All Out For Gaza” protest, which exacerbates the lack of Palestinian voices in the media.
I hope that Lynn Saxberg and Ottawa Citizen will make these changes and improve their coverage of protests in future reporting.
If you wish, you can contact us at 438-380-5410 for more information.
Sincerely,
Fatima Haidar,
Media Analyst, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East