The Media Accountability Project  

Poor coverage - Media outlet to be critiqued

A CJPME Media Researcher has launched a media alert for the following article. Please submit a quick response to the media, even if it’s just a sentence or two:

Title of Piece: Avi Benlolo: "Busting the myths surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict"

Media Outlet: National Post
Click here to access the piece online. If the article is behind a media paywall, click here to view the article in .pdf format.

Please lambaste National Post and Avi Benlolo for an anti-Palestinian and ahistorical opinion piece on the history of Palestine and Palestinians.

Benlolo’s recent opinion piece is just another example of the sustained campaign by pro-Israel advocacy groups to muddy the history of Palestine and attempt to delegitimize its history. The article is riddled with hateful falsehoods that must be challenged, below are just a few. 

For additional information on this topic, and for counterpoints you might make in your letter, please refer to our recent essay: "Palestine’s placename and historical existence."

• Throughout the article, Benlolo negates the existence of a Palestinian state before 1948, which is not only false but offensive as it is a form of anti-Palestinian racism (APR). The earliest recorded use of the word Palestine can be traced back to 1150 BCE.
• In another form of APR, Benlolo denies the Nakba in 1948, and the horrors committed by Israel on this day. This is deeply offensive as Palestinians had their ancestors massacred and lost their homeland. The Nakba means “catastrophe” in Arabic, where 700,000 Palestinians were forcibly expelled, 15,000 were massacred, and approximately 500 Palestinian towns were destroyed, which led to the establishment of the State of Israel on stolen 4,244776 acres of Palestinian land in 1948.
• Benlolo falsely asserts that organizations, such as UNRWA, were established so that “Arab countries kept [Palestinians] in refugee camps, using them as pawns to pressure Israel.” This is not true. UNRWA was created to resolve the refugee crisis caused by the forcible expulsion of Palestinians in 1948. It was seen as a temporary solution as it affirmed Palestinians’ right to return to Palestine.
• Benlolo completely erases Palestinians' existence and indigeneity to their land by claiming that “the land referred to as “Palestine” has always been inherently Jewish.” Again, this is false, and APR.
• We encourage you to frame your own points beyond the ones we've outline above.

Please click here to launch an email in which you can draft a response to this media coverage. If this link does not work for you, simply open an email in your email program, address it to [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] , and draft and send your email.

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Thank you very much. Every response makes a difference.

The CJPME Media Centre Team
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