Canada is an officially bilingual country, and that means most news media outlets which have produced anti-Israel media bias have done so in either English or French.

However, that’s just scratching the surface of what’s out there.

On the January 10 broadcast of Omni Television’s Arabic-language channel, journalist Hiba Al Zubaidi reported on the latest from the Hamas-Israel war.

Click below to watch the full segment:

During the report, she told viewers that Israeli forces had “targeted a house adjacent to an UNRWA clinic” in the Gaza Strip, then immediately showed a Palestinian witness who claimed that “children, women, were targeted, a toddler, 7-day-old, and women, and young children.”

Al Zubaidi added that “witnesses stated that the assault was aimed at residential buildings, employing either a rocket or a barrel bomb, which led to the loss of civilian lives, including those of children.”

HRC has independently verified the translation Al Zubaid’s words from the original Arabic.

A barrel bomb is a large incendiary device that is unguided, meaning that – in contrast to a guided missile – it is dropped on a target and its target cannot be altered. Unlike targeted counter-terrorism operations employed by Israel, barrel bombs are meant to cause maximum damage with little concern for bystanders and collateral damage. There is no evidence that Israel uses barrel bombs in Gaza, unlike the now-deposed regime in Syria of Bashar Assad, who widely used barrel bombs.

Omni has shamefully given a platform to baseless allegations that Israel is committing war crimes by allegedly using illegal weapons that violate the Geneva Conventions.

Omni Television, despite repeating a claim made by Gazans, offered no evidence whatsoever for this allegation.

Even just in the opening moments of Al Zubaidi’s report, Israel is portrayed as a wanton aggressor that is specifically targeting innocent civilians in Gaza, and at no time anywhere in the broadcast was any Israeli spokesperson or official ever shown on camera, quoted or even paraphrased.

In omitting any Israeli statements, Al Zubaidi entirely disregarded Israeli assertions about Hamas’ presence within Gaza, and in particular its connections with UNRWA, a United Nations agency with established ties to Palestinian terrorist groups and whose staff took part in the October 7 Hamas massacres..

What Al Zubaidi neglected to say is that according to the Israeli military, the compound formerly used as an UNRWA school was being actively used by Hamas fighters, and that prior to the strike, Israel surveilled the location in order to minimize Palestinian civilian casualties. Whether she believes Israel is immaterial; she is obligated to report its statements, too.

Al Zubaidi’s report continued by stating that “the Palestinian Health Ministry reported that the Israeli military operations have resulted in the deaths of no fewer than 45,936 Palestinians and injuries to over 100,000 individuals…”

While the regurgitation of Hamas casualty absent any context whatsoever is nothing new among many Canadian journalists, it remains no less egregious. Hamas is not only a terrorist group; it is also a skilled disseminator of propaganda, presenting itself as the “Palestinian Health Ministry” or the “Gaza Ministry of Health.” Yet Al Zubaidi did not tell her viewers that the ministry is in fact under the management of Hamas.

Hamas’ death toll claims aren’t just problematic because of the source; the figures make no distinctions between civilians and combatants, nor between those killed by Israeli counter-terrorism operations or those killed by errant Palestinian rocket fire or summary executions from Hamas operatives.

As of 2021, there are nearly 850,000 Arabic speakers in Canada, representing growth of more than 500 percent since 1991, indicating that outlets like Omni Television will continue to see robust growth of their Arabic-language news coverage.

But no matter the language that news is being reported in, there is no justification for presenting grossly one-sided coverage that demonizes Israeli counter-terrorism operations, falsely and deliberately presenting them as targeting innocent civilians in Gaza using deadly barrel bombs. Even if one believed that to be the case, Omni Television – as with any news media outlet – is obligated to present Israeli statements to the public, so that they can decide for themselves.

HonestReporting Canada has filed an official complaint with the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council and call on our subscribers to take action and send complaints to Omni Television Arabic.