The Media Accountability Project  

If the Financial Post purports to be a serious media outlet, then it should immediately withdraw this shameless, paint-by-numbers recitation of the canon of fact-free hasbara repeated by propagandists for almost 80 years. Any media outlet worthy of the name must have a non-negotiable policy of printing only the truth. It should also give voice to Palestinians, who have endured unimaginable suffering for generations, so as to give Western audiences a dose of reality that they so desperately need.

There is a serious lack of context that removes accountability from Israel, the occupying power that has been denying the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and most importantly which has been causing the “human catastrophe” in Gaza in the first place.

One of our MAP media advocates Debbie Hubbard wrote a powerful letter to the editor that was published in the Toronto Star on July 24, 2025. In her piece, Debbie condemns the lack of Canada’s silence regarding Israel’s systematic targeting of civilians in Gaza through the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

In her letter, she urges the Canadian government to take immediate meaningful action, imposing a two-way arms embargo on Israel, sanctioning Israeli leaders currently under investigation by the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity, and banning business with companies complicit in the illegal occupation of Palestinian territories.

You can read her letter here.

Calling it the “Israel-Hamas war” suggests two equal sides, when in reality Israel is an occupying power with one of the most advanced militaries in the world, and Palestinians are a stateless, besieged population living under apartheid. This framing erases the power imbalance and diminishes the reality of Palestinian suffering under a genocidal campaign.

"However, the use of “capturing” rather than “occupying” risks misleading readers into thinking that Israel has a legitimate claim to the Palestinian territories. Palestinians are the indigenous people of Palestine, and media outlets should not be complicit in normalizing Israel’s illegal colonization through misleading language."

Treating the results as directly comparable is a polemic tactic designed to create a damaging narrative of guilt-by-association, which the Israeli government and its allies in the media have been using as an excuse to indiscriminately killing civilians en masse for almost two years.

"Irresponsibly, the article then platforms Israel’s denial of its own actions, without providing essential context, in stating "Israel disputes the hunger fatality figures given by Gaza's Health Ministry, arguing that deaths were due to other medical causes." It is both unfair and inaccurate not to also mention that famine has been officially declared in Gaza, and there is ample evidence that people with underlying medical causes are the most susceptible to malnutrition and therefore among the first to die in a famine."

Yet, the article left out the insidious reasons why “conditions in the Palestinian enclave [have] descended further into hunger and desperation” and why there is a “struggle to find food”. 

"Simply put, repeating what “Israel says” misinforms and misleads listeners. CBC has a responsibility to distinguish fact from assertions, and provide adequate, balanced context to the listener."

"In light of the above, referring to it as “disputed” misleads readers and violates the journalistic imperative of accuracy. I urge you to revise the article in question and to adopt the terminology “occupied West Bank” in all future reporting on this issue. Using accurate language is essential to uphold the journalistic principles of accuracy, impartiality, and fairness expected from professional journalists."