The Media Accountability Project  

MAP Alert: National Post op-ed appears to incite violence against NDP leader

"Framing a political leader's public statements as deserving of divine or physical execution constitutes a clear threat and an alarming escalation for the National Post."

 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: Yoni Goldstein: "Jewish law tells us how to deal with Avi Lewis"

Media Outlet: National Post
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Participation requirements:

  • Ensure your feedback aligns with our Terms of Participation.
  • Focus on journalistic standards and ethics and refrain from abusive, hateful, or disrespectful language.
  • Do not copy and paste the material below as the content to your message to the media.
  • Put all comments in your own words and do not use AI to draft your email.

Comments of the CJPME Media Researcher:

Join us in writing to the National Post to express serious concerns about a recent op-ed that appears to incite violence against NDP leader Avi Lewis. Lewis was targeted for his tweet on Yom Kippur about how we all bear a collective responsibility to stop the genocide in Palestine.

  • Author Yoni Goldstein opens by recounting the story of Korach, a dissident follower of Moses who, along with his family and followers, was swallowed up by divine fire. The piece explicitly draws a parallel between this execution and how "Jewish law tells us how to deal with Avi Lewis."
  • Framing a political leader's public statements as deserving of divine or physical execution constitutes a clear threat and an alarming escalation for the National Post.
  • The article calls Lewis a "mosar" and a "rodef," which were the same terms used as justification by the assassin of Yitzhak Rabin.
  • Publishing content that can reasonably be interpreted as a call for violence against an individual violates core journalistic standards and editorial responsibilities.
  • The National Post must not provide a platform for dangerous incitement and should immediately retract the piece and issue an apology. 

You are welcome to draw on any of the above information, but ask you to put a complaint in your own words and use your name.

Please click here to launch an email in which you can draft a response to this media coverage. If this link does not work for you, simply open an email in your email program, address it to [email protected], and [email protected], and draft and send your email.

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Thank you very much. Every response makes a difference.

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