"Given that Hamas targeted military personnel and infrastructure on Oct. 7, only a portion of their attacks can be broadly classified as 'terrorism'."
February 21, 2024
To:
Stuart Benson, Reporter, The Hill Times
Charelle Evelyn, Managing Editor, The Hill Times
Dear Stuart Benson,
I am writing on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East to express concern regarding a recent article titled “Palestinian Canadians losing hope, taking drastic measures as Gaza visa program fails to bring loved ones to safety,” published on February 21 in The Hill Times.
While your article remains incredibly informative and touches on the great lengths to which Palestinian Canadians are going to reunite with their family members in Gaza, I’d like to bring one issue to your attention.
One of your final paragraphs reads:
On Oct. 7, Hamas militants launched a terrorist attack on Israel, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages back into Gaza. In response, Israel declared war on Hamas and launched an invasion of the Gaza Strip it controls. Since then, Gaza health authorities say more than 29,000 Palestinians have been killed, with nearly 70,000 injured.
Hamas is an Islamic Palestinian liberation organization that governs certain aspects of the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip, provides social services, runs media outlets, and has a military wing. Although “terrorism” has many interpretations, the United Nations defines it as criminal acts against civilians with the purpose to “intimidate a population or compel a government or an international organization to do or abstain from doing any act.” Given that Hamas targeted military personnel and infrastructure on Oct. 7, only a portion of their attacks can be broadly classified as “terrorism.” Given this nuance, I would recommend editing the first sentence of your paragraph to make it more accurate: “Hamas militants launched an attack on Israel…” Given that some of Israel’s actions in Gaza both before and after Oct. 7 qualify as terrorism, labeling Hamas’ actions as terrorism but not Israel’s is a blatant double standard.
For context, the United Nations Security Council does not have Hamas listed as a terrorist organization. Canada, on the other hand, does. If Canada’s attribution is the reason why you’ve made a broad-brush generalization of Hamas as a terrorist entity, then that needs to be made clear in your article. Otherwise, your vocabulary insinuates a moral judgment, which is inappropriate in an article labeled “news.”
I hope you will adjust your article and consider this information when reporting on this issue in the future.
Sincerely,
Rose Mardikian,
Media Analyst, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East