"This misrepresentation constitutes a serious failure to adhere to the Canadian Association of Journalists’ (CAJ) ethics guideline on accuracy, which states that journalists must be 'disciplined in verifying facts” and must distinguish “between assertions and fact.' Even in the context of an opinion article, this piece falls short of being 'based in fact.'"
April 23, 2025
To:
Rob Roberts, Editor-in-Chief, National Post
Tristin Hopper, Journalist, National Post
Dear Mr. Roberts and Mr. Hopper,
I am writing on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) to express my concerns regarding your article titled “More than 300 candidates sign on to campaign pushed by radical anti-Israel group”, published on April 22, 2025. The piece pedals misinformation, and Mr. Hopper's writing on Vote Palestine is built on arguments framed around guilt by association tactics to malign a broad-based political movement advocating for Palestinian human rights and accountability under international law.
Clarification on Vote Palestine
You state that the platform “demands broad Government of Canada sanctions on anything connected to Israel, including ‘cultural and academic exchanges.’” This is categorically false. The Vote Palestine platform explicitly limits these proposed sanctions to Israeli Jewish-only settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories and calls for a ban on engagement with these illegal settlements, including “financial investments, trade in goods or services, and cultural and academic exchanges.” The section itself reinforces Canada’s own recognition that these settlements are a war crime under international and domestic law.
Below is the outline of the section’s demands:
End Canadian involvement in illegal Israeli settlements
While Canadian foreign policy formally recognizes Israeli settlements are in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, making them war crimes, Canada has failed to take measures against Israel’s ongoing violations of international law and theft of Palestinian land. The Canadian government can take immediate measures to end its complicity in these crimes such as:
- banning all engagement with illegal Israeli settlements, including financial investments, trade in goods or services, and cultural and academic exchanges;
- revoking the charitable status of Canadian charities found to support Israeli settlements;
- and prohibiting the ownership, sale, or rental of properties located in illegal Israeli settlements by anyone in Canada.
This misrepresentation constitutes a serious failure to adhere to the Canadian Association of Journalists’ (CAJ) ethics guideline on accuracy, which states that journalists must be “disciplined in verifying facts” and must distinguish “between assertions and fact.” Even in the context of an opinion article, this piece falls short of being “based in fact.”
UNRWA Defamation
The article presents a dangerously misleading and unbalanced portrayal of Canada’s support for UNRWA by uncritically repeating unverified allegations of ties to terrorism, without providing the necessary context or substantiation.
Allegations that UNRWA is linked to Hamas remain unsubstantiated. Investigations by the United Nations and independent international bodies have not found any systemic links between UNRWA and Hamas or other armed groups. UNRWA itself has stated that it has not received specific allegations of the diversion of aid in Gaza and maintains that if any credible evidence emerges, it would condemn and investigate it with full transparency.
UNRWA administers aid through a rigorous and multilayered oversight system, including vetting staff against UN security databases and conducting internal audits and third-party reviews. These mechanisms are designed precisely to prevent the misuse of humanitarian resources and ensure compliance with international standards.
Many countries, including Spain, Norway, and Canada, have since resumed or increased funding to UNRWA following internal reviews and consultations with independent investigators, all of which found no sufficient evidence to justify the cessation of support. These decisions reflect international confidence in UNRWA’s integrity and operational standards.
To ignore these facts and present UNRWA as a liability rather than a lifeline is to mislead readers at a time when Gaza faces genocide.
As of March 2025, 3,700 children in Gaza were hospitalized for severe malnutrition, according to UN and health officials. Alarming projections from Gaza’s Ministry of Health suggest that if the siege continues, tens of thousands of children may face death by starvation. More than 60,000 children are now at risk of serious health complications, a direct result of Israel’s continued blockade of food, medical supplies, and fuel.
Since March 2, 2025, no aid has entered Gaza, a territory home to over 2.3 million people. This has led to the closure of 21 critical nutrition centers, disrupting care for hundreds of severely malnourished children. Israel’s decision to halt water supplies, cutting off 70 per cent of Gaza’s water access, further compounds the crisis by undermining sanitation and public health at a catastrophic scale.
UNRWA has also faced threats outside of Gaza. On April 8, 2025, officials from the Jerusalem Municipality, accompanied by Israeli security forces, raided six UNRWA schools in East Jerusalem and issued orders to shut them down within 30 days, directly impacting around 800 students, who are now at risk of being unable to finish the academic year. These closure orders come in the wake of recent Israeli Knesset legislation aimed at curbing UNRWA’s operations, despite the agency’s mandate from the UN General Assembly to provide essential education and services to Palestinian refugees. Israel’s attempts to shut down these essential services violates that protection and also breaches international law.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has explicitly rejected Israeli proposals that would “callously limit aid down to the last calorie and grain of flour,” acknowledging that the Israeli government is using the control of humanitarian aid as a tool of collective punishment. Such tactics are violations of international humanitarian law, which prohibits the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) confirms that the situation is “likely the worst humanitarian crisis in Gaza since October 2023.” Basic food intake and dietary diversity have plummeted. Medical facilities are being bombed. Over 50,000 people have been killed, and the healthcare system is in collapse due to strikes on hospitals and the lack of equipment to rescue the wounded.
In this context, UNRWA is the sole remaining institutional lifeline for the population of Gaza. It provides education, medical care, shelter, and food aid under incredibly dangerous conditions. Mr. Hopper's mischaracterization of UNRWA actively contributes to a climate in which life-saving humanitarian institutions are delegitimized and defunded, with lethal consequences for millions of civilians, including children.
Framing PYM as terrorists
Additionally, you characterize Palestine Youth Movement (PYM) as a group that “celebrated the October 7 massacres,” presenting this as fact without evidence. While PYM is one of many organizations advocating for Palestinian rights, your piece unfairly generalizes its activities as violent and anti-Israel, generalizing support for Palestinian liberation and endorsement of violence.
Labeling the broader pro-Palestinian movement as “anti-Israel” is deeply misleading. This framing aligns legitimate criticism of Israeli government policies with antisemitism and terrorism. It reinforces harmful stereotypes that Palestinians and their allies are inherently violent or opposed to democratic values. Such coverage violates journalistic standards on fairness and diversity, as outlined by the CAJ and the National News Media Council (NNC).
CJPME is urging the National Post to correct its false description of Vote Palestinian, its misleading description of UNRWA, and its unfair description of the Palestinian Youth Movement.
Sincerely,
Anthony Issa
Media Analyst
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME)