The Media Accountability Project  

The characterization of Israel’s blockade of Gaza is supported by authoritative international bodies, not critics. Framing it this way reduces established international legal conclusions to the level of subjective criticism.

These concerns warrant fair-minded journalistic scrutiny by The Toronto Star, which is presently missing from the opinion piece, as it gives Denise Handlarski a platform to discuss the alleged rapes committed by Hamas militants on October 7 despite the serious disputes and credibility concerns surrounding several of the report’s claims.

While Israel routinely claims that it only targets infrastructure linked to the resistance in Lebanon, there have been repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure and civilians themselves. Yet the article glaringly omits this perspective and instead uncritically repeats Israeli military claims.

The issue with the article is that it does not provide space to challenge or raise skepticism around Israel’s claim that the IDF only targets buildings used by the resistance in Lebanon.

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."