Why is this not enough? Why is Palestinian testimony being treated as secondary?
December 19, 2024
To:
Karis Mapp, Reporter CBC News
Nancy Waugh, Managing Editor, CBC News
Brodie Fenlon, News Editor in Chief, CBC News
Jack Nagler, Ombudsman, CBC News
To the CBC News team,
I am writing on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East to address your one-sided article that silences Palestinian perspectives. I’m referring to the CBC News article published on December 18, 2024, titled “Twin sisters from Gaza killed after being accepted into University of Waterloo PhD program in Ontario.”
I am particularly troubled by the following sentence:
“While the University of Waterloo says it was an Israeli airstrike, CBC has yet to confirm that and is awaiting a response from the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). The university team managing the fellowship program has been in contact with the women's family, who confirmed their mother also died in the airstrike.”
First, suggesting that CBC is waiting for verification from the Israeli Offensive Forces (IOF) regarding the deaths of Dalia and Sally Ghazi Ibaid is deeply problematic from a journalistic perspective. If I can explain it in an analogy, seeking verification from the IOF in this case is akin to asking a defendant to confess their own guilt.
The IOF is the active participant in what legal experts have defined as an ongoing genocide in the occupied Gaza Strip, notwithstanding that it has a vested interest in controlling the narrative of its military operations. The IOF regularly claims that civilian areas are targeted because Hamas allegedly hides weapons there—a claim consistently denied by the resistance. Furthermore, the IOF targeted journalists in Ramallah, urging Al Jazeera to close its offices in the occupied West Bank due to their allegiance to Hamas – a claim that Al Jazeera has rejected.
Second, The University of Waterloo, a reputable Canadian university, has provided clear information based on direct communication with the victims' family that Dahlia and Sally’s “lives were taken in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza last Thursday, December 5, 2024.” The family's account, combined with the university's statement, offers sufficient grounds for reporting the incident as an Israeli airstrike without waiting for IOF verification. Why is this not enough? Why is Palestinian testimony being treated as secondary? Let me ask: If Hamas had killed two Israelis, would CBC wait for verification from Hamas?
By waiting for the IOF's proof over the testimony of Dalia and Sally’s family and that of UofWaterloo, CBC is dehumanizing Palestinian perspectives, reflecting a broader pattern of anti-Palestinian bias in the media where Palestinian experiences are consistently ignored.
To conclude, this euphemism only serves to cast unnecessary doubt on the Israeli airstrike that took the lives of Dalia and Sally Ghazi Ibaid on December 5th, which has already been confirmed by their family and the University of Waterloo.
I urge you to correct this oversight, removing “ CBC has yet to confirm that and is awaiting a response from the Israel Defence Forces (IDF)” and give the two Palestinian women martyrs and their family the respect they deserve.
Warmest regards
Lynn Naji
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East