Join us in challenging a Globe and Mail article that employs the dangerous trope that Palestine was desolate and uninhabited until Israelis “made the desert bloom.”
Poor coverage - Media outlet to be critiqued
A CJPME Media Researcher has launched a media alert for the following article. Please submit a quick response to the media, even if it’s just a sentence or two:
Title of Piece: Patrick White: “In tight-knit community of Nir Oz, survivors of the massacre mourn those lost and a way of life that may never return"
Media Outlet: Globe and Mail
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Comments of the CJPME Media Researcher:
(Note: Please do not copy and paste the material below as the content to your message to the media - put all comments in your own words):
Join us in challenging a Globe and Mail article that employs the dangerous trope that Palestine was desolate and uninhabited until Israelis “made the desert bloom.”
Journalist Patrick White has done a fair job covering these issues in the past — he has written multiple human-interest stories about Palestinians. However, this piece is a step backward, as it whitewashes history.
- The article repeatedly portrays the Israeli land just outside of Gaza as previously barren and “grim.” This framing promotes the idea that Palestinians were never there or failed to cultivate the land, both of which are not true.
- The establishment of Nir Oz in the Negev is framed as an effort to set up farming communities when in reality it was part of a violent military strategy to expand Israel’s land claims, which led to the murder and displacement of Palestinians.
- There is no mention of Palestine or Palestinians. The article only mentions Hamas and “Arab neighbours,” effectively erasing Palestinians.
- Palestinians are only described in terms of violence and backwardness. The land before the arrival of Israelis is described in similarly negative terms.
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The CJPME Media Centre Team
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