Keen news observers understand that in journalism, every word matters. That is especially true in coverage of Israel and the Middle East, where a single phrase can transform a complicated legal dispute into an accusation of state cruelty. In series of June 24 CBC News reports from Jerusalem, reporter Crystal Goomansingh described Palestinian families facing eviction in the neighbourhood of Silwan using language such as “forced evictions,” “displacement,” and “settlers,” while giving audiences little of the legal, historical, or factual context needed to understand what is actually taking place.
Watch the full clip below:
The result was a narrative, and it’s not the first time HonestReporting Canada has issued an alert about Crystal Goomansingh who was previously caught amplifying outlandish accusations against Israel, using her platform to interview a US-based ‘humanitarian’ representative, and for spreading false famine claims and platforming baseless claims of “indiscriminate” violence in Lebanon.
The phrase “forced eviction” that the CBC chose to title one of its reports is not neutral language. In international human-rights discourse, it has a specific meaning: removal from a home or land against one’s will without appropriate legal or other protection. If CBC News is going to use that phrase, it owes viewers and listeners an explanation. What legal protections were available? What court proceedings took place? Who owns the property? What did the courts decide? What does the opposing side say?
That matters because not every eviction is a human-rights scandal. Sometimes an eviction is the result of a civil property dispute, a court ruling, unpaid rent, contested ownership, or a long-running tenancy disagreement. Even the most basic journalistic standards require that those facts be explained rather than buried or omitted.
The case of Abed Shaludi (who was the focus in all of the related stories) shows why such context is essential. Goomansingh herself reports that his parents rented the house in 1964 and that he was given the option to stay if he would simply pay back-rent that he owed. Instead, a legal dispute involving outstanding rent was turned into a human-rights scandal for Canadian audiences, courtesy of the CBC.
In two reports, Canadians were told that the case was part of the “largest displacement of Palestinians since 1967,” while discussing a relatively small number (18) of families. That framing demands scrutiny. The “largest forced displacement since 1967” language tends to appear in activist or NGO materials about much broader West Bank situations involving tens of thousands of people, not merely an 18-family Jerusalem property dispute.
The casual invocation of 1967 is itself also deeply loaded. The June 1967 Six-Day War did not occur in a vacuum. At the time Israel was threatened by the armies of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan who were all part of the joint United Arab Command. Before Jordan entered the fighting, Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol sent King Hussein of Jordan a clear message: Israel would not act against Jordan unless Jordan attacked first. Jordan did attack and in the ensuing battles lost control of Judea and Samaria, which it itself occupied since 1948, giving it the moniker of ‘West Bank’ because it is on the West bank of the Jordan River and West of the country of Jordan.
Goomansingh also told audiences that Palestinians have lived on these lands for centuries. That statement too requires investigation. It would be inaccurate to claim that Silwan has no Arab history. But it is equally misleading to present Jewish presence in and around Jerusalem as foreign, recent, or colonial. The first modern neighbourhood built outside Jerusalem’s Old City walls was Mishkenot Sha’ananim, established by Sir Moses Montefiore in 1860 for Jewish residents leaving the overcrowded Old City. That does not mean no Arab villages existed outside the walls, but it does undermine any simplistic claim that Jewish residence outside the walls is merely a recent “settler” intrusion. CBC viewers deserved that complexity. They did not receive it.
Lastly, and most troubling is the reported treatment of Israeli flags. Goomansingh said Israeli flags on homes are “an indication” that Palestinian families have been evicted and that Israeli settlers have moved into those homes.
That is an extraordinary claim to make without evidence. An Israeli flag is not proof of theft and Goomansingh should not be permitted to simply point to a Jewish or Israeli symbol and imply criminality.
The pattern is familiar: allegations against Israel are given emotional force. Israeli and Jewish history is minimized or ignored, legal complexity is flattened, and audiences are left with a simple narrative in which Palestinians are victims, Jews are “settlers,” and Israel is the aggressor.
CBC is Canada’s publicly-funded broadcaster and its responsibility is to verify, attribute, contextualize, and challenge claims, not amplify one-sided narratives.
