The Media Accountability Project  

"Please update “the scarf,” “cultural cloth,” and “black and white checkered scarf” to simply “keffiyeh,” as it can be deeply offensive to Palestinians and their allies to use reductive terms to allude to the keffiyeh without providing any proper description of it, especially amidst the rise of anti-Palestinian racism."

When Israeli authorities banned the Palestinian flag from 1967 until the 1993 Oslo Accords, the keffiyeh became an expression of Palestinian identity. In the 60s and 70s, during the anti-war movement, students and anti-war campaigners started to adopt it. The keffiyeh became an overarching symbol of anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism. In short, the keffiyeh symbolizes the Palestinian identity, struggle, and resistance.

Please update “the scarf,” “cultural cloth,” and “black and white checkered scarf” to simply “keffiyeh,” as it can be deeply offensive to Palestinians and their allies to use reductive terms to allude to the keffiyeh without providing any proper description of it, especially amidst the rise of anti-Palestinian racism.

In the sea of popular Canadian media indulging in the pro-Israel lobby’s narrative that teaching the Nakba somehow distorts history, this type of article is rare, refreshing, and much appreciated. Some articles that have been widely circulated across media outlets border on one of the most pervasive forms of anti-Palestinian racism: Nakba denial.

"Why do you emphasize the fact that calls for an end to the “conflict” and illegal occupation can be “interpreted as calls to ethnically cleanse the Middle East of Jews” but do not emphasize the fact that conflict and illegal occupation of Palestinian lands are widely interpreted as the current ethnic cleansing of Palestinians?"

"The vocabulary and framing you’ve used to describe protests at the University of Southern California is entirely misleading. Please adjust it accordingly, as it is a question of maintaining commonly held journalistic standards of accuracy."

"Given these cases of violent crack-downs on protestors at both the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Southern California, the vocabulary you’ve used to describe interactions between students and police is inappropriate, inaccurate, and merits prompt correction."

"Please update “checkered scarves” promptly, as it can be deeply offensive to Palestinians and their allies, especially amidst its ban at the Ontario Legislature and the rise of anti-Palestinian racism. You might want to consider words such as “an expression of Palestinian identity, struggle, and resistance” as they are more appropriate and accurate in describing the keffiyeh and its significance to the Palestinians and their allies."

Writing that “Half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people” are “gathered” in Rafah makes it seem like they are reuniting and having a gathering in Rafah because of voluntary choice, which is not true and obfuscates Israel’s responsibility and actions that led to Palestinians going to Rafah. Palestinians are being forcibly displaced to Rafah because Israel has been targeting everyone everywhere and has left no safe zone from its bombardment campaign