In yet another instance of CBC – Canada’s taxpayer-funded broadcaster – featuring an entirely uncritical conversation with a pro-Palestinian activist and erasing essential details, the Day 6 program featured host Brent Bambury interviewing Bushra Khalidi of the self-described “humanitarian” organization Oxfam, a group engages in anti-Israel activism.
CBC Downplays Monument’s Reported Ties to Palestinian Terrorists
The August 28 episode, “A Palestinian humanitarian worker says Israel is erasing the possibility of a Palestinian state,” began with Bambury featuring sounds from a recent visit by Israeli lawmaker Zvi Sukkot to an Arab village, where the host stated that he used a “sledgehammer used to destroy a monument in a Palestinian village.” While Bambury stated that “he says the monument glorifies violence against Israelis,” he then pivoted back to sharing that “his actions have been widely condemned.”
Listen to the full segment:
Bambury could have acknowledged that, according to news reports, the monument memorialized dead Palestinian terrorists, members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a banned terrorist entity in Canada. Instead of stating the facts as they are, Bambury’s phrasing put the focus on the Israeli action, rather than the Palestinians’ glorification of terrorism.
That introduction served as a bellwether for the rest of the interview, which was as lamentable as it was entirely predictable.
Palestinian Terrorism and Israel’s Security Concerns Left Out
He told listeners about “attacks on Palestinians by Israeli settlers and soldiers,” completely omitting any mention of ongoing Palestinian terrorism there, nor about how many of the supposed “attacks” on Palestinians are actually counter-terrorism operations against Palestinian combatants. Moreover, he offered zero insight as to how such allegations of “attacks” are vociferously challenged by data collectors, who have found such claims to be wildly exaggerated.
The sole focus of the segment was, once again, Israeli “settlers” who dare to live in their ancestral lands. Khalidi – a frequent guest in Canadian media, where she has previously spread the unfounded “genocide” slur, and did so again in this interview – did not disappoint.
Khalidi claimed that proposed Israeli construction in suburban Jerusalem (an area that under any reasonable peace plan, would remain part of Israel) “threatens the prospects of a two-state solution,” as if Israeli homes were the biggest threat, and not the continued rejection by Palestinians of Israeli peace offers, no matter how generous or continued Palestinian terrorism.
While Khalidi’s comments were entirely expected, it was Bambury’s responsibility to challenge her absurd characterizations, but in line with many of his past interviews offering what we regard as sympathetic platforms to pro-Palestinian activists and largely erasing Israeli voices, he failed to challenge her even once.
Oxfam’s Anti-Israel Activism Deserves Media Scrutiny
As documented by HonestReporting Canada, Oxfam (and its Canadian arm) enjoys what we consider to be overwhelmingly sympathetic treatment in the Canadian news media, where it is treated as a “humanitarian” organization and rarely – if ever – challenged to defend its own track record.
Oxfam engages in anti-Israel activism spending large sums in social media advertisements targeting the Jewish State, purchasing ads on business television networks spreading the “genocide” slur, and using its repeated presence in Canadian media interviews to attack Israel almost exclusively, all while being conspicuously quiet about the Iranian regime’s massacre of its own people.
This may not entirely be an accident, with NGO Monitor documenting what it says is Hamas’ near-total control of ‘humanitarian’ groups in Gaza, which may explain (at least in part) the organization’s apparent anti-Israel agenda.
This August 28 interview on Day 6 featured host Brent Bambury doing what CBC has done far too many times: taking pro-Palestinian claims as the basis for a segment, featuring only an interview with a pro-Palestinian activist, and providing them with an entirely uncritical interview, and continuing to demonstrate an apparent allergy to guests who might dare to offer a view grounded in facts, rather than anti-Israel ideology.
photo credit: Brent Bambury
