The Media Accountability Project  

Israel has notoriously held prisoners without charge or trial under its “administrative detention” designation for decades. Many of these prisoners have complained of terrible sanitary conditions, torture and ill treatment.

"To uncritically label these raids as “arrest raids” and further frame them as being in response to “Palestinian attacks” falsely equates Palestinian armed resistance to occupation—a right which any occupied people has the legal right to—with Israeli institutional aggression against a besieged people. Such framing ignores the crucial context of Israel’s occupation, the absurd asymmetry of power at play, and unacceptably absolves Israel of any accountability for its ongoing brutality against the Palestinian people."

On May 2, 2023, CBC’s The World This Hour aired a segment on the death of Palestinian hunger striker Khader Adnan in which journalist Irris Makler said that he had “refuse[d] medical treatment.” In doing so, Makler was repeating a claim by Israeli authorities without attribution, which has been contradicted by human rights groups and UN officials who say that Adnan was denied adequate medical care by Israeli authorities. CJPME wrote to the CBC requesting a clarification.

On May 8, 2023, CBC’s The World This Hour broadcast the following clarification:

We have a clarification to make. Last Tuesday, we reported about the death of Palestinian hunger striker Khader Adnan in Israeli custody. We said he refused medical help until the end, but did not attribute that statement to the Israeli authorities. Adnan’s supporters dispute that version of events. 

CJPME is pleased that the CBC has corrected this factual problem with the segment, but additional issues remain. Notably, CBC has only said that “supporters dispute” Israel’s claims, without identifying them as key human rights experts. CJPME also requested that the CBC provide additional context on Adnan’s long history of imprisonment within Israel’s military court system, and the use of “administrative detention” in which Israel arbitrarily detains large numbers of Palestinians without charge or trial. In the segment, this was referred to only and inadequately as being “jailed by Israel.” Unfortunately, this and other issues were not addressed in the CBC’s coverage of the story.

"First, it is unacceptable that the reporting in this story is entirely one-sided and notably lacks comment from Palestinians themselves or their allies, who support Jama’s positions on Palestinian human rights. This article would have been strengthened, for example, if it had included the perspective of Noura Erakat, whose tweet is at the centre of this story. Instead, the only perspectives in this story are from Jama’s critics, who are opposed to her pro-Palestinian activism."

"First, the story does not provide any information about Khader Adnan’s case or the broader context of the Israeli military court system and its practices of administrative detention. Those details would have helped readers understand why his hunger strike campaign has received so much sympathy from Palestinians and support from human rights organizations. In the absence of details, the story gives the impression that he was a “convicted terrorist,” in the words of B’nai Brith, and readers may assume that he enjoyed a fair legal process, neither of which is true."

"Jama’s retweet was not fringe or extreme, as her critics want to suggest, but consistent with key voices in the human rights community. The ONDP should stand up against the smears."

"If Israel’s military court system and practices of administrative detention had been mentioned as part of the story, listeners would have a much better understanding of why many human rights experts have said that Adnan’s history of imprisonment is unfair, why he decided to embark on repeated hunger strikes in the first place, and why Palestinians have expressed widespread support for his protest. Instead, the use of the term “jail” could imply to listeners that Adnan had been convicted of a crime as part of a fair legal process. The omission of this context is therefore highly misleading."

"Arrested and administratively detained twelve times over two decades, Adnan became a prisoner leader when he began to use hunger strikes as a non-violent tactic to protest Israel’s administrative detention. By omitting the fact that Adnan was under administrative detention, you prevent the listener from understanding why Adnan had become such an inspiration to Palestinians, and why rocket attacks were launched against Israel in support of Adnan."

"The use of the phrase ‘so called’ in the context of Israel’s use of administrative detention laws is misleading. 'So called’ brings into question the validity and reality of ‘administrative detention’ as a widespread practice of the Israeli military. Israel’s use of administrative detention has been documented by both the United Nations and human rights and civil society organizations. There is nothing ‘so called’ about the administrative detentions."

"In the CBC’s brief segment, it is reported that “[Israeli] Officials say he refused medical treatment while his legal proceedings moved forward.” This is a claim which seeks to put the blame on Khader Adnan for his own death. However, the segment did not include the critical perspectives of Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups who have directly contradicted Israel’s claim."