http://www.honestreporting.ca/cbc-gives-platform-to-palestinian-organizations-claim-that-israel-is-carrying-out-isis-like-terror-attacks/15794

Yesterday, CBC News’ website abhorrently gave a platform to a press release issued by the Canadian Palestinian Association of Manitoba (CPAM) which claimed that Israel is carrying out terror attacks in the same vein as ISIS’ recent massacres in Paris and in Beirut. 

An article entitled: “Winnipeg shows support for Paris in wake of terror attacks” reported the following:

“The Canadian Palestinian Association of Manitoba (CPAM) issued a release on Monday, saying it “vehemently condemns”the global rise of terror.

In addition to the Paris attacks, CPAM noted the Beirut suicide bombings and the Israeli raid on a Palestinian hospital — both of which happened the day before Paris — as part of the ‘recent rise of terror attacks.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the Beirut bombings, which killed 43 people and injured some 240 others.

In the hospital incident, two dozen Israeli gunmen disguised as Palestinians — including two dressed as women, one as a pregnant woman in a wheelchair, and others wearing fake beards — invaded al-Ahli hospital where they shot dead a 28-year-old man and dragged away another man in a wheelchair.

“We share the emotion and sadness and offer our sincerest sympathy and condolences to the families and friends of all the victims internationally,” stated the release from CPAM president  Moh’d Badwan Zeid.

“A terror attack against one is an attack against all. We must sympathize with all victims of terror…”

HonestReporting Canada was deeply disturbed that CBC News gave an undue platform to the Canadian Palestinian Association of Manitoba (CPAM) to accuse Israel of carrying out mass terror attacks on innocents, just like ISIS whose suicide and shooting attacks in Paris saw 129 people killed and hundreds injured, and its suicide attacks in Beirut that saw 43 people killed and 240 injured.

In this disgraceful attempt at drawing a moral equivalence and lumping Israel in with the scourge of radical Islam perpetrated by ISIS, CPAM claimed Israel committed “terror” in a raid on a Palestinian hospital. What CBCNews.ca failed to report and which we called on their editors to address in a complaint sent yesterday, is that the individual who was “dragged away”, as the CBC put it, was a Palestinian terrorist who Israel claims had stabbed an Israeli civilian and who was recuperating and hiding in this hospital. Furthermore, the 28-year-old man who was “shot dead” at the hospital was a known Hamas operative who Israel claims had attacked its soldiers who were acting in self-defence. This individual was, according to the Canadian government, a terrorist. CBC ignored all this vital context.

Furthermore, it was equally troubling that Israeli security forces where referred to by the CBC only as “two dozen Israeli gunmen” – as if they were random individuals who carried out a terror attack against Palestinians at a hospital. Would CBC ever dare label RCMP officers carrying out an arrest raid solely as “Toronto gunmen”? We think not.  

That CBC.ca felt this press release was newsworthy is very disturbing as it fans the flames of hatred. It’s important to note that CTV News did also cover this press release by CPAM, but their journalist’s report did not reference CPAM’s libel against Israel, perhaps sensing that this outrageous claim wasn’t worthy of publication.

HonestReporting Canada called upon CBC News to immediately remedy the situation. While it’s deeply regrettable that CBC did not atone for its giving a platform to this Palestinian organization’s claim that Israel is carrying out ISIS like terror attacks on Palestinians, CBC did issue a story rewrite and amended the article to reflect the context which we pointed out was sorely lacking. The article now states the following:

“The Associated Press reported that surveillance video from the al-Ahli hospital showed Israeli forces disguised in traditional Arab outfits, including one impersonating a pregnant woman, raiding the facility and that the Israeli military said they were there to arrest a suspect in a stabbing attack.

According to the report, a wanted Palestinian man was dragged away in a wheelchair.

The Israeli military said the target of the raid was Azzam Shalaldeh, a Palestinian accused of stabbing and severely wounding an Israeli man in the West Bank late last month, according to AP.

It further reported that the Israeli military forces shot to death another man who attacked them, and that hospital workers identified him as Shalaldeh’s cousin, Abdallah. The army said the cousins were “known Hamas operatives.”

Osama Najjar, the spokesman for the Palestinian Health Ministry, called the incident an “assassination,” according to The Telegraph.

International human rights group Amnesty International said the killing of the 28-year-old Palestinian man could be called an “extrajudicial execution.”

CBC, true to form, saw fit to amend this article to also carry accusations that Israel had carried out an “assassination” and an “extrajudicial execution”. As well, though CBC did originally use the “terror” word in its headline to describe the attacks in Paris, editors shamefully scrubbed it from the headline which now reads only: “Winnipeg shows support for Paris in wake of attacks”.

Here is the “clarification” that CBC issued:

If you’re appalled by the way that CBC handled this matter and are deeply upset that our public broadcaster gave a platform to a Palestinian organization’s claim that Israel is carrying out ISIS like terror attacks on Palestinians, please send your concerns to CBC News Editor-in-Chief, Jennifer McGuire at: [email protected].