In a January 19 CBC News article entitled: “Palestinian Authority says there can be ‘no security and stability’ in region without two-state solution,” Digital Writer Kevin Maimann reported on recent statements by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, where he reiterated his conviction that Israel must retain a semblance of security control in the Gaza Strip in the future.

In the article, Maimann covered the response to Netanyahu’s comments, quoting Nabil Abu Rdeineh, a spokesperson for Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who stated that “Without the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital on the borders of 1967, there will be no security and stability in the region.”

Maimann added that “Palestinians are seeking Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem — which were captured by Israel in 1967 — for their state.”

What Maimann did not tell readers is that Israel has offered the Palestinians exactly that, most notably in 2000, when then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak famously offered Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat the Gaza Strip, eastern Jerusalem, as well as most of Judea & Samaria (West Bank). And in exchange for the small parts of the area kept by Israel, Jerusalem would agree to mutually agreed-upon land swaps.

Israel’s offer was rejected by the Palestinian leadership, and shortly afterwards, a violent uprising, or intifada, was launched against Israel.

Undeterred, in 2005, Israel forcibly and unilaterally withdrew all Israeli citizens from the Gaza Strip as part of a ‘Disengagement,’ aimed at helping to pave the path to peace. Within long, Gaza was taken over by Hamas, which turned the coastal territory into a launching pad for violent attacks against Israeli civilians.

The Palestinian Authority, despite Abu Rdeineh’s hyperbolic statement, has shown no interest in finding peace alongside Israel. From official school textbooks to mosques and official media outlets under control of the Palestinian Authority, Israel is regularly demonized and delegitimize and violence against the Jewish State is praised.

Even more bizarrely, in his article, Maimann even quoted Hamas, a genocidal Islamic terrorist organization which is dedicated to the violent destruction of Israel, as expressing its opposition to Netanyahu’s comments.

Maimann quoted a Hamas statement, which claimed that Netanyahu’s words were “an affirmation of the fascist Zionist policy based on denying the existence of our Palestinian people and their rights,” and paraphrased the group, which Maimann wrote “said Palestinian resistance would continue until Israel’s plans of occupation are thwarted,” using a whitewashed term for Palestinian terrorism that is favoured by Hamas.

“In 2017, Hamas accepted the idea of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, but without recognizing the statehood of Israel,” according to Maimann, suggesting that Hamas was in favour of a Palestinian state within pre-1967 armistice lines, but this is untrue.

Not only does Hamas’ founding charter explicitly state that it is opposed to Israel’s very existence, the group’s leaders have repeated this stance, with Hamas officials making clear that their goal is to see the “annihilation” of Israel.

However, Maimann’s article suggests that Israel, not Hamas, is somehow the intransigent player acting as an obstacle standing in the way of a two-state solution.

Kevin Maimann’s CBC News article misrepresented both Israel’s longtime efforts to offer peace to the Palestinians, as well as the adamant refusal of Hamas in particular to entertain the very possibility of Israel’s continued presence in the Middle East.

HonestReporting Canada has filed a complaint with CBC News and we encourage you to do the same. Send emails to CBC Editor-In-Chief Brodie Fenlon at: Brodie.Fenlon@cbc.ca.