"This type of selective reporting is a microcosm of what Mohammed El-Kurd calls “the politics of appeal” — the notion that Palestinians must be portrayed as “perfect victims,” such as children, to elicit sympathy. It implies that the deaths of Palestinian adults — women and men — are somehow less tragic, less newsworthy."
May 14, 2025
To the CTV Saskatoon Newsroom,
I am contacting you on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East regarding the news segment which was aired by CTV Saskatoon today, Wednesday, May 14, 2025, at 5:32 am.
First, the reporting states that “according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, 22 children were killed in a series of airstrikes in Jabalia town.”
Regardless of one’s opinion on Hamas, it is the de facto governing authority in the occupied Gaza Strip. Naturally, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza operates under its jurisdiction — as any civil institution would under a local government.
Describing it as the “Hamas-run” Health Ministry is not a neutral designation; it is a politically loaded term that portrays Palestinian hospitals as suspicious and untrustworthy — as if they are run by militants rather than by trained Palestinian health professionals.
This framing also undermines the credibility of the medical data they provide, and worse, feeds into anti-Palestinian bias. It primes audiences to see Palestinians not as victims, but as suspects — less deserving of empathy, less human.
This double standard is glaring. When Israelis are killed, their deaths are reported as fact — no qualifiers, no insinuations. Yet when Palestinians are killed, the deaths are routinely qualified with the phrase: “according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.”
A hospital is a hospital, is it not? In the name of fair and accurate reporting — as outlined in the Canadian Association of Journalists’ guidelines — I urge you to stop using the phrase “Hamas-run.” Instead, simply say the “Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza.”
Second, the on-screen headline reads: “At least 48 killed in Israeli airstrikes in Northern Gaza,” yet the spoken report highlights only the number of children killed (22), not the full toll (48+) of Palestinians killed by Israel.
This type of selective reporting is a microcosm of what Mohammed El-Kurd calls “the politics of appeal” — the notion that Palestinians must be portrayed as “perfect victims,” such as children, to elicit sympathy. It implies that the deaths of Palestinian adults — women and men — are somehow less tragic, less newsworthy.
All Palestinian lives should matter — not just the children. The report should have said that more than 48 Palestinians were killed by Israel, rather than singling out only the 22 children.
I urge CTV News to reflect on the impact of its language and framing, and to uphold the principles of accuracy, impartiality, and fairness in its reporting. Palestinians should not have to conform to ideals of innocence or be children to be recognized as victims. All lives lost — adult or child — deserve to be reported with the same respect.
Lynn Naji
Media Analyst
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East