On April 15, 2023, a CityNews segment on the Holy Fire ceremony in Jerusalem’s Old City (“Christians in Israel celebrate ‘holy fire’”) falsely claimed that the event took place in “Israel,” rather than occupied East Jerusalem, and erased the Palestinian identity of the Christian worshippers. CJPME wrote a letter to CityNews requesting an on-air correction.
On April 18, 2023, CityNews broadcasted an on-air correction stating:
Correction now to a story we ran on Saturday night. In reporting on the Holy Fire ceremony in Jerusalem's Old City, we referred to the event as taking place in Israel. Although Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be its capital city, the United Nations considers East Jerusalem, where the ceremony takes place, to be occupied Palestinian territory. The Canadian government also says it does not recognize Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem. Events in the old Christian Quarter attract worshippers from around the world, including Palestinian Christians.
CJPME is pleased that CityNews acted promptly to rectify this false claim and add necessary additional context on the Palestinian identity of the local Christian community. We expect that CityNews will continue to correctly refer to East Jerusalem as occupied Palestinian territory in future reporting.
✅ Huge success! We are very pleased to see that @CityNewsTO has made an on-air correction to clarify that the Holy Sepulchre church in Jerusalem's Old City is located in occupied Palestinian territory, after falsely claiming it was in "Israel." https://t.co/47R4itVgYC #cdnmedia pic.twitter.com/n4bPLUI0ID
— Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (@CJPME) April 19, 2023