"Watching your segment deeply resonated with me on a personal level. My grandfather is from southern Lebanon and was displaced due to Israel’s expansion of its genocide in occupied Gaza into Lebanon. October is a season of harvest, much as it is for others — a time for gathering olives to produce oil and soap. For us, the olive harvest is not only a yearly tradition of collecting olives, it represents our connection to the land and is a symbol of resistance — reminding us to stay steadfast in the face of hardship much like the olive tree that endures even the harshest of winters."
October 23, 2024
To:
Nancy Waugh, Managing Editor, CBC News
George Achi, CBC News
Brodie Fenlon, News Editor in Chief, CBC News
Jack Nagler, Ombudsman
Dear CBC News team,
I am writing on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) to express my gratitude for your recent news segment on Israeli settler violence in the northern occupied West Bank during the olive harvest.
There are several aspects of your coverage that I appreciated. First, you correctly refer to Israel’s presence in the West Bank as unlawful, as confirmed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an Advisory Opinion on July 19, which ruled the illegality of Israel’s settlements in the Palestinian territories—West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza—based on the Fourth Geneva Convention, which explicitly prohibits the transfer of an occupier’s population into the territory it occupies.
Second, I valued your inclusion of interviews with Palestinians who spoke about the dangers they face from Israeli settler violence. This violence includes tactics of intimidation and terror, such as firing shots into the air, attacking people with sticks, and sabotaging the harvest by dropping olives on the ground before they are ripe. Many may not realize that the majority of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank depend on agriculture as their primary source of income, and these disruptions from settler violence only push them deeper into poverty and displacement.
Finally, watching your segment deeply resonated with me on a personal level. My grandfather is from southern Lebanon and was displaced due to Israel’s expansion of its genocide in occupied Gaza into Lebanon. October is a season of harvest, much as it is for others — a time for gathering olives to produce oil and soap. For us, the olive harvest is not only a yearly tradition of collecting olives, it represents our connection to the land and is a symbol of resistance — reminding us to stay steadfast in the face of hardship much like the olive tree that endures even the harshest of winters.
So, thank you for shedding light on the daily realities faced by Palestinians and for providing context on Israel’s brutal occupation of Palestinian land and violence against civilians. I encourage you to continue covering these realities, not only in occupied Gaza but also in the occupied West Bank.
Best regards,
Lynn Naji
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East