The Media Accountability Project  

"While you give the number of Israeli casualties, you fail to mention the number of Palestinian casualties. According to OCHA, between October 7, 2023, and January 30, 2024, at 12:00, at least 26,751 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, and 65,636 Palestinians were injured."

"By excluding any information that may have given merit to some of the criticism made against Mayor Levi, readers are given an incomplete story that favours Israel. Please link readers to Levi’s Facebook profile and include the mayor’s most recent policy proposals to make your coverage of this issue more balanced."

"This is such a bold and extraordinary claim, which Marie Woolf has editorialized in an even more sensationalist fashion, that readers deserve more information. While such a thing may have been said, and ought to be condemned if it was, to make this particularly hateful phrase seem like part of some pro-Hamas movement is a spectacular claim for a serious journalist to make."

"Many of Dr. Rosenberg’s accusations would normally lead CBC to seek out a right of reply from the parties facing such strong condemnations. Why should this case be any different? Again, this article and the situation appear to be a flashpoint in BC and deserve better and more fair coverage than this."

"Firebombing a Synagogue, targeting Jewish homes, and painting Nazi graffiti is clearly anti-Semitic. However, there is no evidence in the editorial such anti-Semitic, hateful, illegal acts are undertaken by individuals protesting the genocide conducted in Gaza by Israel."

"I, therefore, ask you to add a Muslim voice and mention the rise in Islamophobia to make your article more balanced and fairer."

"The banality of evil as Arendt wrote about, after the Adolf Eichmann trial, can only be prevented in this generation by the teaching and practise of universal values, human rights and critical thinking, not escaping into echo chambers of victimhood."

"As far as I can tell, there was no antisemitic vandalism in any of the images that have emerged. And yet, the claim is stated as fact without qualification."

"The principal's post on X was anti-Zionist but not antisemitic, which is a shame because your article shifted to an article about antisemitism while only citing pro-Israel organizations such as B'nai Brith and Friends of Simon Wiesanthal Centre. You even mention Education Minister Stephen Lecce saying there’s no room in Ontario for activist teachers, which furthers my point."

On April 28, 2023, the Thompson Citizen published a letter from CJPME’s Ghida Mawlawi. The letter was a response to a Canadian Press article on B’nai Brith’s “Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents,” which as CJPME has noted conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism. B’nai Brith’s report had attacked MP Niki Ashton, who represents the region which includes Thompson, Manitoba, for her support for Palestinian rights. The letter reads in part:

In perusing the report, I was surprised to find that B’nai Brith seems to deliberately conflate incidents of anti-Semitic speech and violence with pro-Palestinian activism and criticism of Israeli policies. For instance, Churchhill-Keewatinook Aski NDP MP Niki Ashton was flagged down for anti-Semitic speech for a tweet in which she employs the terms “apartheid” and “settler-colonialism.” In the same vein, a bus advertisement in St. John’s, sponsored by Independent Jewish Voices Canada, which cites Amnesty International’s claims that Israel is practicing apartheid, was also featured in their report as anti-Semitic speech.

B’nai Brith’s tendency to lump all anti-Israel actions with actual incidents of anti-Semitism seriously undermines the reliability and validity of their data. Moreover, I find that it comes at a great disservice to the fight against anti-Semitism.