On January 6, CBC News published an opinion column by Hadani Ditmars entitled: “Foreign leaders might want to dial back the Iran protest schadenfreude” which saw Ms. Ditmars erroneously claim that Israel has spent billions of dollars on “foreign wars”.
To be specific, Ms. Ditmars wrote (emphasis added):
Current unrest in Iran seems to have provided foreign leaders with prime schadenfreude tweeting opportunities. But U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might want to dial back their exuberant support for Iranians who have taken to the streets over the past week. To begin with, their encouragement by social media provides the embattled Iranian regime with an excuse to blame the protests on foreign meddling (and with the historical intervention of the CIA and MI6, it wouldn’t be totally far-fetched). But beyond that, it’s rather tone-deaf for the leaders of these countries to cheerlead for these protests against poverty, corruption, religious authoritarianism and billions spent on foreign wars, while ignoring the same criticisms of their own governance at home.”
While Ms. Ditmars is entitled to her own opinions, she’s not entitled to her own facts. HonestReporting Canada reached out to senior CBC editors asking if Ms. Ditmars can substantiate her claim that Israel has spent billions “on foreign wars.” Naturally, Israel and its Ministry of Defense, spends considerable sums of money on its military, security, covert and intelligence operations and efforts key to its vital national security interests, but what “foreign wars” has it spent billions of dollars on?”
After receiving our complaint, CBC agreed with our analysis that this statement required a correction and amended the column which now reads as follows (emphasis added):
To begin with, their encouragement by social media provides the embattled Iranian regime with an excuse to blame the protests on foreign meddling (and with the historical intervention of the CIA and MI6, it wouldn’t be totally far-fetched). But beyond that, it’s rather tone-deaf for the leaders of these countries to cheerlead for these protests against poverty, corruption, religious authoritarianism and billions spent on foreign wars (in the case of the U.S.), while ignoring the same criticisms of their own governance at home.”
We thank the CBC for amending this column, though CBC Journalistic Standards stipulate that an official correction notice must be published to this article. We’ve requested that such action be undertaken.
Lastly, a quick retort to Ms. Ditmars for her claiming in this column that Ahed Tamimi is a 16-year-old “anti-occupation protestor”. In fact, Tamimi is well known for punching, biting (see picture at right), kicking and slapping Israeli soldiers and for her encouragement of terror attacks against Israeli civilians. She is no mere protestor and has an earned reputation for being a propagandist and professional agitator. Make no mistake, Tamimi was incarcerated by Israeli authorities for assaulting an Israeli soldier.
