On February 28, CJPME learned that the Waterloo Region Record made corrections to an article following a CJPME complaint. This article was about the escalation of anti-Palestinian racism in schools within the Waterloo Region School District. Despite the subject of the article– the prominence of APR– being highly appreciated by CJPME, there were a couple of instances of anti-Palestinian racism subtly embedded within it.
Initially, the article read:
The overall Palestinian death toll from the war in Gaza has now surpassed 28,000, according to reports from the Health Ministry in Gaza this week. This comes after Hamas militants killed about 1,200 Israelis and foreigners on Oct. 7, and abducted around 250 people, mostly civilians.
After complaining to the author and editor that this paragraph dehumanizes Palestinians by using active language for Israelis and not Palestinians, as well as not citing Israel as the source of information for the Israeli death toll, Waterloo Region Record edited the paragraph to:
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 28,000 Palestinians, according to reports from the Health Ministry in Gaza this week. This comes after Hamas militants killed about 1,200 Israelis and foreigners on Oct. 7, and abducted around 250 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials.
In one of their paragraphs, Williams wrote: “Since the latest Israeli-Palestinian conflict began in October…” Given the fact that the “conflict” did not begin in October and the word “conflict” falsely implies a power symmetry between the two parties involved, CJPME recommended that the beginning of this sentence simply be amended to “Since Oct. 7.” Now, the sentence reads: “Since Oct. 7, the Coalition of Muslim Women of K-W has been documenting the rise in specific anti-Palestine racism in the school board.”
We appreciate both Waterloo Region Record’s response to our complaints and their willingness to publish articles regarding anti-Palestinian racism and strategies to combat it with the Waterloo Region School District.