On July 10, 2024, CJPME sent a letter about a La Presse article on a social media list calling for the boycott of certain restaurants for their alleged ties to Israel.
CJPME argued that the article was biased as the article conflates the boycott of certain restaurants with antisemitism and not anti-zionism.
CJPME asked for four changes:
- La Presse removes the word "Juifs [Jews]" in the following sentence: "Depuis plusieurs mois, une liste de restaurants montréalais juifs circule sur les réseaux sociaux, appelant à les boycotter en raison des « liens » qu’ils auraient avec Israël." [For several months now, a list of Jewish Montreal restaurants has been circulating on social networks, calling for their boycott because of their alleged “ties” to Israel.]
- La Presse provides a description of CIJA (Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs) as they should not be presented as representatives of the Jewish community
- La Presse provides a context of the genocide in Gaza and the intentions behind the BDS movement to make sense of the list
- La Presse edits their definition of anti-Zionism as its misleading
While three of our asks were not properly acknowledged, La Presse did remove "Juifs" from the sentence that we took issue with. It is still a notable change since it was in the preamble of the article, and this will just encourage us to keep on pushing for the other issues.