Your piece describes the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs as a Jewish advocacy group. The group, as its name suggests, is first and foremost an Israeli lobby group. Any statements it makes should be balanced by points of view of Jewish groups opposed to Israeli genocide and Palestinian representatives.
To the National Post editorial team,I would like to express my concern re: your article “CBC grilled by the Tories on antisemitism within company.”
If the National Post wishes to editorialize in favour of defunding the CBC, of course it has every right to do so. News articles on the other hand, are expected to exhibit balance, and distinguish assertions from fact. The article presents damaging allegations of antisemitism against the CBC without challenge or clarification.
The first example of “antisemitism” in your article is that CBC cites statistics on death and destruction issued by Gaza’s Health Ministry. Yet these same statistics are considered reliable by the UN, WHO, UNICEF and NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and are widely recognized internationally.
The second references a CBC report of the Israeli strike on the Al Ahli Hospital in October 2023 which concludes, “But it was later revealed the damage was caused by a Hamas rocket that misfired in a nearby parking lot.” This is not factually correct. While some Israeli supporters accept the Israeli contention that the blast was caused by a Hamas ordinance, an investigation by the respected international organization Forensic Architecture concluded that the blast was caused by munitions fired from the direction of Israel. At very least the article should have reported that there is controversy about responsibility for the blast.
Neither of these issues references antisemitism.
In fact, the only actual report of an antisemitic statement by a CBC journalist immediately resulted in the journalist being relieved of her duties by CBC.
Your piece describes the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs as a Jewish advocacy group. The group, as its name suggests, is first and foremost an Israeli lobby group. Any statements it makes should be balanced by points of view of Jewish groups opposed to Israeli genocide and Palestinian representatives.
Finally, the article unexpectedly pivots to recount unsubstantiated accusations that CBC hires foreign workers instead of Canadians for “high wage” positions, a statement that can only reinforce anti-immigrant hysteria. Once again, nothing to do with antisemitism.
Surely there must be a way for the Post to pursue its campaign against the CBC without reinforcing tendentious claims of antisemitism and promoting anti-immigrant bias.
Tim McCaskell
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