The Media Accountability Project  

Palestinians are not the instigators of violence in the occupied West Bank !

"Would you refer to it as a “war” if Russia was doing this to a largely defenceless Ukraine? I don’t think so. In fact world humanitarian groups are now referring to the situation in Gaza as a genocide. This is no longer debateable to anyone but Israeli apologists. I strongly urge you to refer to this carnage as a genocide from now on."

January 8, 2025
To the Newsroom at Canadian Press,

I’m writing today to share some concerns about the wording and structure of your article, “Israeli raids kill 3 in West Bank, including Hamas commander” published on January 7, 2025.

For instance the structure and content of this section.

“Palestinians have carried out scores of shooting, stabbing and car-ramming attacks against Israelis, especially during the past 15 months of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. Israel has launched near-nightly military raids across the West Bank that frequently trigger gunbattles with militants and have also killed civilians.”

The arrangement of information in this passage makes it seem like the Palestinians are the aggressor and instigator of the violence in the West Bank and Israel is responding. The reality of the situation is that Israel is illegally occupying Palestinian land and has been running thousands of violent nightly raids in the West Bank for decades, long before October 7th. It is in fact the Palestinians who are retaliating to illegal Israeli aggression in the West Bank and also Gaza. Of course there are also the settlements and the settler attacks which are also illegal. 

As you know the West Bank is only part of the story so you rightly mention Gaza. I would rethink calling this asymmetrical conflict a “war”.  Palestinians have been massacred daily for 459 days, in addition to being starved, dehydrated, tortured and most recently newborns dying of hypothermia. Most Palestinians have no defence. No tanks, fighter jets, drones, warships, helicopters or heavy artillery. 

Would you refer to it as a “war” if Russia was doing this to a largely defenceless Ukraine? I don’t think so. In fact world humanitarian groups are now referring to the situation in Gaza as a genocide. This is no longer debateable to anyone but Israeli apologists.

I strongly urge you to refer to this carnage as a genocide from now on.

Thank you for reading and I look forward to your response.

Regards,

Jeff Winch

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