Update: May 27, 2021:
After HonestReporting Canada issued its alert and our subscribers sent complaints, CBC News surreptitiously amended Margaret Evans’ online article to now say that “Israel said more than 4,300 rockets were fired at the country by Hamas and other militant groups from the Gaza Strip during the recent conflict, , most of which were intercepted by Israel’s missile defence system.”
As we pointed out in our alert, this vital about Hamas terrorism context was nowhere to be found in her report from Gaza.
Original Alert: May 26, 2021:
In a report published to the CBC’s website on May 26 and on a CBC The National report on May 25, journalist Margaret Evans filed her latest report from Gaza blaming Israel almost exclusively for Gaza’s destruction, despair and deaths.
Evans’ report was skewed to blame Israel from the get-go, with repetitive angles about the Israeli blockade, while giving a platform to Palestinians to falsely claim that Gaza is “occupied”.
Little context was given about the 4,000+ rockets that would have devastated Israel and massacred civilians, were it not for the Iron Dome missile defense interceptor, red alert sirens and bomb shelters.
Evans interviewed different Palestinian families to hear about what they endured during the recent hostilities, saying that “The Israeli military says it doesn’t deliberately target civilians and issued a statement saying it had struck Hamas’s underground infrastructure.” She then commented that: “Whatever the cause, people’s homes became their tombs.” And there you have it, intentional or accidental, Israeli air strikes killed innocent Palestinians.
In both reports, CBC selected photos and video footage of areas of Gaza in ruins, five photos in all for the online article. As we know, images are more powerful than words. What was never considered by Ms. Evans is the destruction and deaths that 
Hamas rockets caused when they errently landed within Gaza proper. Israel says that 1/3 of all Palestinian rockets fired at Israel landed prematurely in Gaza. We may never ever find out the extent of the devastation Hamas caused in Gaza, but that doesn’t mean that Israel can be blamed for every death and every building damaged or destroyed.
On CBC National, Evans lamented how “Gaza can feel claustrophobic at the best of times. Add in streets clogged with the innards of buildings destroyed by airstrikes, it’s even more so. People here are even taking in the extent of the damage.” Again, nothing about Hamas-caused damage to Gaza.
Evans painted Israel as the obvious aggressor and totally disregarded the trauma suffered by Israel civilians from rockets raining down from the skies. What about showing footage and photos of Israelis whose building have been damaged and interviews with Israelis who have lost loved ones or who have been injured or traumatized? Do Israeli lives not matter to the CBC?
Evans interviewed Ahseea Ahmed, head of protection and neutrality in Gaza for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. As is commonly known, UNRWA lacks the neutrality stated in Ahmed’s title and UNRWA has close ties with the Hamas terror group. Evans says Ahmed’s office was hit, presumably by an Israeli airstrike, and was “collateral damage.” Ahmed talked about the “terror” inflicted by Israel on Gaza.
This message is the opposite of what Matthias Schmale, UNRWA’s director in Gaza, recently said when he remarked that he “would not dispute” Israel’s claim that its airstrikes were “very precise,” noting that “they didn’t hit, with some exceptions, civilian targets.”
Well, there you have it: the Gaza head of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian humanitarian matters, says he “would not dispute” Israel’s claim that its airstrikes were “very precise,” noting that “they didn’t hit, with some exceptions, civilian targets.” pic.twitter.com/HFTPouHnH5
— Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) May 25, 2021
Importantly, Evans recorded the following casualty count in her online report: “At least 254 Palestinians, including at least 66 children, were killed in the 11-day conflict; one Israeli soldier and 12 civilians in Israel were killed, including two children, Reuters reported this week.”
She differentiated between Israeli civilian deaths and a soldier’s death, but doesn’t mention the Palestinian terrorist casualties. On that point, Israel says 200+ terrorists were killed and even Hamas now acknowledges that 57 of its members were killed, along with 22 members of the smaller Islamic Jihad terror group and one member of a small group called the Popular Resistance Committees.
Evans’ reporting was skewed against Israel, which was blamed almost exclusively for Gaza’s destruction, despair and deaths. Hamas was let off the hook by the CBC. Please send a complaint to CBC and Tweet your concerns directly to Margaret Evans at: @MEvansCBC.
