The Media Accountability Project  

"Israel fails to remotely approach such a threshold, making its strikes on Aleppo’s airport nothing other than acts of aggression. The article’s failure to properly contextualize Israel’s actions normalizes its brazen contravention of international law, tacitly accepting its belligerency and undermining of peace."

"Your description legitimizes Ben-Gvir’s extremist position, which is out of step with the vast majority of the international community, let alone human rights groups, or Canadian foreign policy. Ben-Gvir is a member of Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power), which is a far-right and racist party with origins in Kahanism, a fascist and terroristic movement which calls for the expulsion of Palestinians from Israel."

On July 4, 2023, CJPME sent a letter to the Canadian Press expressing concern regarding a brief radio segment about Israel’s invasion of the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. The segment stated:

“Hundreds of Israeli troops are pressing ahead with their hunt for Palestinian militants and weapons in a West Bank refugee camp for a second day.”

This language that Israeli forces were “hunting” for Palestinians was used widely in Canadian media during the attack on Jenin, and particularly in articles from the wire service Associated Press (AP). CJPME considers this language alarming and defamatory. It is also misleading, as Israel’s attack led to the deaths of 4 Palestinian children and resulted in the destruction of public infrastructure and private property. There were also reports of ambulances not being able to enter the city. UN experts say Israel’s invasion may constitute a war crime.

In a letter responding to CJPME the same day, the Director of Broadcast News for Canadian Press, Rose Kingdon, wrote:

“I have reminded our newscasters that words matter and we always need to be aware of how a turn of phrase can be hurtful or inflammatory. Yes, it was the AP’s description, but perhaps we could have substituted the words searching or looking instead of ‘hunting’ – which evokes a hunter looking for humans.”

In a subsequent note, she reiterated:

“We understand this is a volatile issue and our goal is to maintain an objective perspective – The wording you objected to was lifted from The AP – and I might add the CBC used that exact same copy. As I said in my previous message, we are going to be extra vigilant regarding wording.”

CJPME considers this a positive outcome and commends the Canadian Press’ response. However, we are committed to monitoring their future coverage and providing critical feedback.

"I appreciate how you describe CUPW’s support of a boycott of Israeli products, but the description is limited in a couple of ways. The campaign that CUPW endorsed is more than a boycott, and it is a response to the mistreatment that Palestinians face as a whole, including refugees and Palestinian citizens of Israel (not just those in the occupied Palestinian territories)."

"To put it simply, B’nai Brith deliberately conflates incidents of antisemitic speech and violence with pro-Palestinian activism and criticism of Israeli policies. Right at the top of the cover page, the report includes an image of pro-Palestinian demonstrators urging a boycott of Israeli wine and places it directly next to antisemitic and white supremacist content."

Unfortunately, your article fails to provide a response to these claims from Palestinians and their allies. Given that you have reported on B’nai Brith’s claims, which depict the Palestinian movement in a negative light, it seems appropriate and necessary to include a response from those who are being targeted. It is not only Jama who is affected by these false and unfair claims which conflate human rights activism with antisemitism.