"The usage of “captured” vs occupied misleads readers into thinking that Israel has a strong claim to, or ownership of, Palestinian territories – which is blatantly not the case. Palestinians are the indigenous peoples of this land – and media outlets should not be complicit in enabling the kind of language that normalizes Israel’s illegal ongoing colonization process."
January 22, 2025
To:
Christopher Bury, Managing Editor, CTV News Montreal
Dan Taylor, Managing Editor, CTV News
Ian Caldwell, Managing Editor, CTV News
To the CTV Newsroom,
On behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, I would like to offer constructive feedback on the AP article CTV News published on January 22, 2025 titled “Why is Israel launching a crackdown in the West Bank after the Gaza ceasefire?”
I take issue with the article falsely suggesting that Israel “captured” the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza the 1967 war when in fact the Zionist settler colonial entity has been “occupying” Palestinian territories, to use the language of the International Criminal Court of Justice:
"The sustained abuse by Israel of its position as an occupying Power, through annexation and an assertion of permanent control over the Occupied Palestinian Territory and continued frustration of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, violates fundamental principles of international law and renders Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory unlawful …. This illegality relates to the entirety of the Palestinian territory “occupied[1]” by Israel in 1967."
The usage of “captured” vs occupied misleads readers into thinking that Israel has a strong claim to, or ownership of, Palestinian territories – which is blatantly not the case. Palestinians are the indigenous peoples of this land – and media outlets should not be complicit in enabling the kind of language that normalizes Israel’s illegal ongoing colonization process.
This issue is not isolated. The same problematic language appears in another article published by AP on January 20, 2025, titled “Israel releases 90 Palestinian prisoners as part of ceasefire deal with Hamas:”
This consistent use of misleading language raises serious concerns about the editorial approach taken by AP regarding the occupied Palestinian territories. Given that AP is an international wire service providing content to numerous Canadian media outlets, I call on the CTV Newsroom to rigorously scrutinize and revise, as necessary, any language sourced from the Associated Press that dehumanizes Palestinians and perpetuates this kind of misleading narrative.
I urge CTV News to adopt language consistent with international law by replacing “captured” with “occupied” when referring to the occupied Palestinian territories by Israel now and in future reporting in the name of accurate and fair journalism.
[1] International Court of Justice. Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” Advisory Opinions. Last modified July 9, 2004. https://www.icj-cij.org/node/204176.
Warm regards,
Lynn Naji
Junior Media Analyst, CJPME