"Mentioning that civilians are “uninvolved” casts guilt on Palestinians when they are protected at all costs under international law. It should not have been written in the first place."
May 22, 2024
To:
Howard Goller, Global News Desk Editor, Thomson Reuters
Nancy Waugh, Sr Manager, Journalistic Standards, CBC News
Dear Howard Goller, and Nancy Waugh,
I am writing on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East to express concerns regarding your article: “Israeli attack in West Bank city leaves 7 dead and journalist injured, Palestinians say,” published on May 21.
There are several issues in your article that I would like to point out.
First, your headline reads: “Israeli attack in West Bank city leaves 7 dead and journalist injured, Palestinians say.”
Your headline requires some changes as the language used is passive.
You use the words “dead” and “journalist” which undermine Israel’s actions and can confuse readers to think that Israelis were among the targeted people when they were, in fact, Palestinians.
While you write in one of the captions for the pictures: “Israeli-occupied West Bank,” you should also mention it in your headline (and throughout your article) for consistency.
Furthermore, you mention “Palestinians say” when you don’t necessarily write “Israelis say” when reporting on Israel’s actions which is not only a double standard but a way to discredit and cast doubt on the facts reported by Palestinians.
I, therefore, ask that you change “7 dead” to “7 Palestinians killed,” add the word occupied to West Bank and Palestinian to journalist and remove “Palestinians say” to make your headline more accurate and balanced. Your new headline should read: “Israeli attack in Occupied West Bank city leaves 7 Palestinians killed and Palestinian journalist injured.”
Since you also write “dead” and don’t specify that the West Bank is occupied consistently in your article, I also ask that you make these changes throughout your article.
Second, you write the word “operation” in two instances in your article:
“Israeli forces raided the West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday, killing seven Palestinians, including a doctor and a teenager, during a major operation.”
“There was no immediate information on the identities of the other dead, or the nine wounded, as the operation continued throughout the morning.”
You should change the word “operation” to “military operation” or “Israeli assault against Palestinian civilians” as you already wrote “military operation” in the caption of one of your pictures. Simply writing “operation” minimizes Israel’s actions that are characteristic of a raid, and which are imposed on Palestinian civilians by Israel.
I, therefore, ask that you change the word “operation” to “military operation” or “Israeli assault against Palestinian civilians.”
Third, you write:
In the seven months since the start of the war, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, many of them armed militants fighting Israeli forces, but others including stone-throwing youths or uninvolved civilians. Several have also been killed in clashes with Israeli settlers.
While the use of the word “war” and the failure to mention that the West Bank and East Jerusalem are occupied can be challenged, I want instead to point out your passive language.
You write that “hundreds of Palestinians have been killed” when you give a specific number when reporting on the death toll in Gaza (more than 35,000). According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), as of May 22, and since October 7, “489 Palestinians, including 117 children, have been killed and more than 5,000 Palestinians, including about 790 children, have been injured in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”
Mentioning that civilians are “uninvolved” casts guilt on Palestinians when they are protected at all costs under international law. It should not have been written in the first place.
“Clashes” should also not be used to describe how Palestinians got killed as it accuses them of their deaths. It absolves that 1) the Israelis have provoked the incident, 2) that there is a highly asymmetrical power dynamic between armed Israelis and unarmed Palestinians, and 3) the victims are Palestinians. It is better to simply say that Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers.
I, therefore, ask that you change the words “hundreds of Palestinians” to 489 Palestinians, to remove “uninvolved” to civilians and “in clashes” to give a more accurate picture of the on-the-ground reality of the Palestinians.
Fourth, your video caption reads about the Nakba:
The Arabic word for 'catastrophe' is used by Palestinians and their supporters to describe Israel's declaration of independence in 1948, which led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. Many Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes in the ensuing war between Israel and its Arab neighbours.
This is an inappropriate and reductive way to describe the Nakba. Palestinians are not describing “Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948” but massacres of ancestors, the loss of their homeland, and other particularly sensitive subject matter. It is also a day to recognize the existence of Palestine, and to describe the Nakba in such a slanted way is a form of anti-Palestinian racism since it negates the existence of Palestine before the establishment of the State of Israel and the horrors that the establishment of the State of Israel entailed.
According to the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association (ACLA),
Anti-Palestinian racism is a form of anti-Arab racism that silences, excludes, erases, stereotypes, defames or dehumanizes Palestinians or their narratives. Anti-Palestinian racism takes various forms including: denying the Nakba and justifying violence against Palestinians; failing to acknowledge Palestinians as an Indigenous people with a collective identity, belonging and rights in relation to occupied and historic Palestine; erasing the human rights and equal dignity and worth of Palestinians; excluding or pressuring others to exclude Palestinian perspectives, Palestinians and their allies; defaming Palestinians and their allies with slander such as being inherently antisemitic, a terrorist threat/sympathizer or opposed to democratic values.
The Nakba describes the forcible expulsion of 700,000 Palestinians, the massacre of 15,000 Palestinians, and the destruction of approximately 500 Palestinian towns, which led to the establishment of the State of Israel on stolen 4,244776 acres of Palestinian land in 1948, and not the other way around as you describe it.
I, therefore, ask you to remove “to describe Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948,” and to specify that 700 000 Palestinians were forced to flee from their homes.
Your paragraphs should read this instead: “The Arabic word for 'catastrophe' is used by Palestinians and their supporters to describe the forced displacement of 700,000 Palestinians from their homes.”
As a closing statement, I would like to point out that instead of saying Palestinians, you referred to them as “people” three times in your article and “residents” four times. Please stop using passive language as it further dehumanizes Palestinians and their indigeneity to the land, and, therefore, a form of anti-Palestinian racism.
I hope CBC and Thomson Reuters will make these changes and consider my suggestions in future reporting on the genocide in Gaza.
Sincerely,
Fatima Haidar
Media Analyst, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East