The Media Accountability Project  

The article should specify that Elbit Systems is Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer and a major supplier to the Israeli military, producing drones, surveillance technologies, and weapons systems - profiting from and enabling Israel’s ongoing ethnic cleansing campaign against Palestinians in Gaza.

The Toronto Star has a responsibility to provide rigorous, contextual, and impartial journalism. This article falls short of that standard. I therefore urge you to amend the title of the piece to reflect a more balanced and evidence-based account of the killing of the Palestinian teenager, specifically attributing Israel in the headline

We understand that this does not constitute a breach of the core pillars of responsible journalism; however, in the interest of accuracy, and in light of the international legal consensus regarding Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza, we kindly ask that you amend the article by replacing “critics” with language that reflects the weight of international legal and human rights consensus, including UN experts. 

The Israeli forces have long used the pretext that journalists are affiliated with armed groups to justify their killing. We have seen these unfounded allegations repeated time and time again. In 2025, Israeli officials falsely alleged that martyred journalist Anas al-Sharif was affiliated with Hamas, a claim which was then rejected by Al Jazeera affirming he had no such affiliation. 

Canadians are in for a big surprise when they learn the extent of Carney’s ambitions. With a slim majority just handed to him by unsuspecting Liberals, he’s now primed to unleash an unfettered attack on our rights and freedoms in pursuit of a new world order where our every thought and action is surveilled and controlled.

"To accuse someone at a pro-Palestine rally of doing a “Nazi salute” but not confirm it fuels hate, feeds into stereotypes of pro-Palestinian supporters and promotes anti-Palestinian racism. It does not have a place in responsible and fair journalism."

"It was disappointing once again to see a double-standard in a media article. We are in total agreement that we need to push back against any form of racism and hatred, regardless of the group that is targeted. However, the role of the media is to provide informed and unbiased reporting when such incidents occur."

I take issue with the paragraph that quotes the Israeli forces using the term “terrorist” to inform readers about the alleged motivation behind why they opened fire on a car carrying the Bani Odeh family in the town of Tammun in the northern occupied West Bank, killing Ali Khaled Bani Odeh, 37, his wife Waad, 35, and two of their sons, Mohammad (5) and Othman (7). The Star should have provided context about Israel’s documented history of weaponizing the term “terrorism” as a pretext to justify the killing and illegal detention of Palestinians.

According to the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) Ethics Guidelines, journalists must ensure reporting is accurate, fair, and complete, and must not present unsubstantiated claims as established fact when credible evidence suggests otherwise. We therefore urge the Toronto Star to revise its headline so that it does not present the claim of faulty intelligence as an established fact.

Journalistic fairness means that if you are going to point out that Iran’s retaliatory strikes have targeted countries in the Middle East that host U.S. military bases, you should also be pointing out how many countries the U.S. and Israel have bombed and how many world leaders they have murdered or forcibly removed from office in just the last two years. If you want to be fully fair and balanced, your reporting should at least occasionally be looking back over several decades at the master plan that seem to be coming to a head. This also means mentioning the Greater Israel project.