The Media Accountability Project  

Although the United Nations has established these human rights standards, they are not binding. This lack of enforcement, along with the strong support Israel receives from both Western and Arab states, creates a situation where our UN standards for human rights are often ignored and weakened by selective inaction.

On July 6, 2023, the Toronto Star published a story by Josef Federman of the Associated Press (AP) which included the claim from human rights groups that Israel is practicing apartheid against the Palestinians. Mr. Federman is the News Director in Jerusalem for AP and helps shape their coverage of Israel and Palestine. Although the AP occasionally publishes articles about someone making a claim of apartheid, CJPME and others have been pushing AP for months to include these claims as context in their general reporting on Palestine, which would help readers make sense of the broader issues.

Federman’s July 6 article did exactly this. Here is an excerpt:

Palestinians seek the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, areas Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war, for their state. The land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, made up of pre-1967 Israel and the occupied lands, is populated in roughly equal parts by Palestinians and Israeli Jews. Pollsters predict an eventual Palestinian majority because of higher birth rates.

Proponents of partition say it would create a democratic Israel with a clear Jewish majority in defined borders and enable Palestinians to realize their national aspirations.

Without partition, the default is an apartheid-like reality in which a shrinking Jewish minority controls a growing Arab majority with few political rights. Leading rights groups say an apartheid system is already in place.

"Eviction’ suggests to a Canadian audience that this is a disagreement between a landlord and tenant. In reality, the Gahith-Sub family’s experience is the ongoing effort of the Israeli government to forcibly displace Jerusalem’s Palestinian population."

"The dismissal of Amnesty International’s report on the Israeli military occupation and apartheid regime as “dangerous mistruths” fails to account for the overwhelming evidence that has been documented by UN experts, Human Rights Watch, Israeli NGOs and Palestinian civil society. Benlolo and Kopel’s efforts to warp both history and reality does not detract from the obvious and growing evidence of Israeli apartheid and settler-colonial policies."

Palestinians have been living under occupation for several decades and are subjected to restrictions on their movement, freedom of expression, rights abuses and violence at the hands of the Israeli forces as well as Israeli settlers.

"I’m aware that the article has come under attack by Honest Reporting Canada. CJPME firmly disagrees with and contests their characterization of the article. I believe Mr. Haluza-DeLay’s piece is an honest, fair assessment of his experience and applaud his courage in speaking openly about it."

"It’s bold to suggest that Israel was ever a democracy to start with. It is highly problematic that an article on the erosion of Israel’s “democracy” fails to include how the Palestinians under Israeli control are largely excluded from said democracy." 

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.

"Il n'y a plus d'organisations de défense des droits de la personne mondialement connues et respectées qui ne reconnaissent pas l'apartheid israélien. Il ne s’agit donc pas d’incompréhension ou de mauvaise foi."