The Media Accountability Project  

"Any disagreement with an employer, current or previous, is noted in their file and can make it difficult to obtain the security certificate required to work elsewhere inside a colony. Consequently, the Palestinians hesitate to demand that their rights in colony workplaces be respected."

Unfortunately, this highly sanitized, ambiguous language to explain the Nakba is inappropriate. “Displacement,” as you write, doesn’t begin to describe even one component of the ethnic cleansing that led to the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. About 700,000 Palestinians were forcibly expelled, 15,000 were massacred, roughly 500 Palestinian towns were destroyed, and Israel stole 4,244776 acres of Palestinian land.

Why has CBC Montreal scrubbed the article to remove reference to an extremist, right-wing, terrorist group showing up to intimate student protesters? Canadian audiences have been bombarded with allegations of pro-Palestine protesters being the threat, but when a pro-Israel terror group shows up to intimate protesters, the media downplays the incident

"The ICJ has ruled that there is a plausible genocide and that Israel must do everything to prevent it. Yet, you chose to mention that Israel is under investigation for genocide and that it can take years to determine. You even add Israel’s position on the court when Israel has a history of falsely accusing human rights organizations of bias."

"Language is powerful and the words we use convey various meanings and emotions. The students participating in the encampment at McGill University have clearly and consistently used the word ‘genocide’ in their demands for the university to divest from corporations that are supporting or benefitting from Israel’s genocide on the people of Gaza."

On April 26, 2024, CJPME sent a letter to CityNews Toronto, pushing the media outlet to make changes regarding an article about MPP Sarah Jama being asked to leave the Ontario legislature for defying the keffiyeh ban.

CJPME wrote that the article did not provide an adequate description of the keffiyeh’s historical and cultural significance for Palestinians among other things.

CJPME took an issue with one sentence, among others, of CityNews describing the keffiyeh as “a black and white checkered scarf.” CJPME argued that “checkered scarf” and “Black-and-white scarves” are terms extensively used in racist contexts on social media, such as Twitter (formerly X). CJPME also suggested and included an accurate description of the keffiyeh.

CJPME, among other things, asked CityNews to update the “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.

Following our letter, CityNews changed the words “black and white checkered scarf” to “keffiyeh” as requested.

While other issues were not acknowledged by CityNews, such as referring to the keffiyeh as “the scarf” and “cultural cloth,” it is encouraging that CityNews will change the most problematic reference to the keffiyeh to the suggested edit. It can serve as a precedent to challenge other media outlets using the same descriptors.

"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.