Who is holding the line for Palestine? The media certainly is not.

On January 31, 2024, the Telegraph-Journal published an irresponsible editorial stating that “here at home, many rallies” in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks “have demonstrated antisemitism is very much alive in our own time.” The implication here is that Palestine solidarity rallies in New Brunswick are antisemitic, which is false.

Had the Telegraph-Journal sent a reporter to cover one of the weekly Palestine solidarity rallies calling for a ceasefire on Gaza, it perhaps would not have painted such a slanderous, unequivocally false and unfair depiction of the rallies.

The rallies organized by Fredericton Palestine Solidarity and new peace organizations across the province include Palestinians, Jews and others seeking an end to genocide in Gaza. The rallies are peaceful. The chants call for the right of Palestinians to simply live. The vigils have been spaces to collectively mourn the dead — the children, health care workers, journalists, poets, aid workers, and so many more. 

Besides NB Media Co-op coverage and a Canadian Press story by Hina Alam of a Fredericton rally that was part of a national day of action on November 4, the media only covered Fredericton Palestine Solidarity when members attended the rally at the Fredericton Sgoolai Israel Synagogue last Sunday, January 28. Fredericton Palestine Solidarity, an anti-racist organization, stood in solidarity with the Jewish community to denounce hate and the vandalism that had occurred at the synagogue the day before.

The media as well as our elected officials of all stripes not showing up to rallies against genocide in Gaza not only dehumanizes Palestinians as they die in the thousands, their notable absence makes it seem like the rallies are a shameful place where antisemitism would ever be allowed.

Antisemitism exists and must be actively opposed, but calling Palestinians and allies rallying against genocide in Gaza antisemitic is ridiculous, offensive, cowardly and cruel.

The media is supposed to hold the line, hold the powerful to account, but Postmedia-owned newspapers like the Telegraph-Journal like other media in Canada has completely failed to do so on Palestine.

Genocide in Gaza plays out in real time on social media with viral TikToks, including a seven-minute scroll of the names of the thousands of dead children who never reached one year, two years, three years old. Meanwhile, in the face of genocide in Gaza, Canada’s media outlets ignore, make excuses, lie.

Besides a complete media blackout of sustained protests against Israel’s actions in Gaza from Fredericton to Moncton, Sackville to Miramichi, the media has failed to give voice to Palestinians in our province.

Where are the stories of Palestinians in our province who are mourning the violent deaths of their loved ones? Where are the stories of Palestinians who are trying desperately to bring their loved ones to Canada while facing the horror that only so many will be allowed in the country? Where are the stories about how Canada is treating Palestinian refugees (or Sudanese refugees, for that matter) differently than Syrians or Ukrainians fleeing war?  

Palestinians living during conditions of war and starvation must jump through impossible hoops to reunite with family members in Canada. Treated like criminals, the Canadian government is requiring they provide social media accounts of every Gazan family member in their application. They must also complete a medical exam by a Canadian doctor in Ramallah or Cairo within 30 days, which is impossible without a visa.

Where are the voices supporting the historic ruling of the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) ordering Israel to prevent its forces from committing genocide in Gaza? Where are the stories discussing Canada’s complicity in Israel’s war on Gaza, namely its weapons exports to Israel and relentless uncritical support for Israel’s actions?

The Breach, an independent media outlet, is exposing the Canadian media’s one-sided support for Israel’s war on Gaza. Its analysis of opinion published by the country’s major newspapers, The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star and National Post found it often justified Israel’s actions in Gaza or focused on Hamas’s attacks on Oct. 7 while dismissing the urgent need to end the bombing and starving of Gaza.

Further analysis by The Breach of newspaper coverage on Israel’s war on Gaza revealed the newspapers routinely used the terms “slaughter” and “massacre” to describe the deaths of Israelis, while not using those words to describe Israel’s killing of Palestinians in their homes, refugee camps, at the hospitals, schools, mosques and markets.

How much is a Palestinian life worth, according to the media? The Breach study found that dozens of Palestinian deaths were required to get one mention in Canadian newspapers, while two Israeli deaths got a mention. The analysis found that Israelis were humanized, their deaths were more worthy of outrage, and who was responsible for killing them was identified. Reports of Palestinian deaths did not garner the same due attention or sympathy.

Our public broadcaster is also guilty of biased coverage that dehumanizes Palestinians. The Breach has noted CBC’s admission it uses sanitized language in stories about Palestine. The Hamas attack gets described as “murderous,” “vicious,” “brutal,” “massacre,” and “slaughter” while Israel’s war on Gaza as “intensive,” “unrelenting,” and “punishing.” According to The Breach, CBC has broadcasted more Israeli voices than Palestinian, portrayed Israelis in more humanizing ways, and allowed Israeli military officials to lie unchallenged on air.

According to media reports, Israelis are killed and named. We are told about their families and what they did for a living. In contrast, Palestinians simply died, and have no names. They are one of a number that the media can’t be bothered to count.

Journalists wanting to tell a different story about Palestine are not welcomed. In another important exposé by The Breach, CTV journalists told them they worked in a culture of fear and self-censorship. The journalists said their senior producers and editors only wanted a crying Palestinian, not a political one. The higher-ups stopped stories about protests calling for a ceasefire, and blocked or delayed stories with too much context about Israel’s military occupation and apartheid regime.

In December, the World Health Organization said that a child is killed in Gaza every 10 minutes.

Finally, dear media, where is your solidarity with the estimated 85 journalists killed reporting in Gaza? They died holding the line so that Palestinians did not die twice, in the words of writer Moustafa Bayoumi, “first by bullet or bomb, and next by the language used to describe their deaths.”

The Telegraph-Journal’s shameless and shameful disparagement of Palestine solidarity protesters as antisemitic is sadly representative of the Canadian media as a whole.

It is unacceptable.