"It aligns with a long-standing pattern in Western media that fragments Palestinian identity into “Gazan,” “West Banker,” or “Arab-Israeli,” while deliberately avoiding the term Palestinian. Such erasure is not accidental; it reflects and normalizes a colonial narrative that fragments Palestinian identity and treats Palestinians as stateless, nameless, and ahistorical."
May 12, 2025
To the CBC editorial team,
I am writing on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East regarding the article CBC News published today titled: “Her husband and kids were given safe passage to Canada. She's living in a tent in Gaza.”
While the article was balanced overall, I take issue with two points.
First, the article refers to “a Gaza man who arrived in Ottawa with his three children last month.”
A man from Gaza is not merely a “Gaza man” — he is a Palestinian man from the occupied Gaza Strip. In the context of Israel’s ongoing genocide in the occupied Gaza Strip, a brutal and ongoing military occupation in the occupied West Bank, a suffocating blockade and broader efforts to erase Palestinian statehood, this kind of linguistic reduction is not benign — it is political.
It aligns with a long-standing pattern in Western media that fragments Palestinian identity into “Gazan,” “West Banker,” or “Arab-Israeli,” while deliberately avoiding the term Palestinian. Such erasure is not accidental; it reflects and normalizes a colonial narrative that fragments Palestinian identity and treats Palestinians as stateless, nameless, and ahistorical.
In the interest of accuracy and fairness, I urge CBC to revise the phrase “Gaza man” to “Palestinian man from the occupied Gaza Strip.”
Second, the article mentions that “Gaza's residents are facing a growing humanitarian crisis, with Israel enforcing a months-long blockade on aid supplies to the small Palestinian enclave in the third year of its war against militant group Hamas.”
While your coverage mentions Israel’s blockade on the occupied Gaza Strip, it fails to mention that this practice constitutes a crime against humanity, defying one of the six provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in January 2024, which explicitly requires Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza (Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip [South Africa v. Israel], Order of 26 January 2024).
By continuing to prohibit aid from entering the occupied Gaza Strip, Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war, a practice condemned under international humanitarian law, specifically, article 55 of the Fourth Geneva Convention which mandates that an occupying power is legally obligated to ensure that the civilian population has access to food and medical supplies.
Furthermore, blocking aid from entering, Israel is committing another war crime—collective punishment—in violation of article 8(2)(b)(xxv) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court which explicitly criminalizes the intentional use of starvation as a method of warfare.
Although Israel has not ratified the Rome Statute, the ICC has jurisdiction over war crimes committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) because Palestine acceded to the Rome Statute in 2015, making it a state party to the ICC. As a result, Israeli officials can still be prosecuted for war crimes under 8(2)(b)(xxv) of the Rome Statute.
At minimum, the article should have explicitly mentioned that Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon of war amounts to collective punishment, which is a war crime under international law.
Finally, although Ms. Nancy Waugh has retired from CBC, I hope that our previous correspondence and ongoing concerns will continue to be treated with the seriousness and urgency they demand.
I urge the CBC to make the suggested edits, in the name of fair and accurate reporting, as there should be no room for debate or second guessing while Palestinians are being starved and bombed as we speak.
In solidarity,
Lynn Naji
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East