Following a complaint filed by HonestReporting Canada, a recent March 10 CBC News article which falsely portrayed anti-Israel talking points as unassailable facts, was quickly revised by Canada’s public broadcaster.
As pointed out in a March 12 alert published soon afterwards, the article’s authors, Yasmine Hassan and Sara Jabakhanji, had falsely written that:
“Under international humanitarian law, Israel, as the occupying power, is required to make sure the basic needs of Gazans are met, including food and water.”
In that one sentence, there were two opinions masquerading as facts: firstly, that Israel is the “occupying power” in Gaza, and secondly, that Israel has an obligation under international law to provide humanitarian aid into Gaza.
HonestReporting Canada noted that according to experts in international law, Israel is not required to send aid into Gaza if there is a high likelihood that it will be used by Hamas as part of its violent terrorism against Israel. Secondly, Israel has not permanently had a presence in Gaza for 20 years, since it forcibly withdrew all Israelis from the territory in the summer of 2005.
Following this alert and our complaint sent to CBC News, Canada’s public broadcaster corrected and amended the article in multiple areas. What was described previously simply as being factual soon became attributed to groups as mere claims, with the article now reporting that:
“A number of humanitarian groups — including the United Nations, Human Rights Watch and the International Committee of the Red Cross — have said that under international humanitarian law, Israel is required to make sure the basic needs of Gazans are met, including food and water.”
Secondly, regarding the status of Israel’s presence in Gaza, the article was amended to read that:
“While Israel continues to control most of the flow of people and goods in and out of the Gaza Strip, it says it does not occupy Gaza, having disengaged from the region in 2005, when it ended its permanent military presence there.”
As well, the following clarification notice was published by the CBC which was appended to the article:
Clarifications
- An earlier version of this story referred to Israel as an occupying power. It has been updated to add further attribution and context.
Mar 11, 2025 3:47 PM EDT
While a post-facto change is less ideal than simply getting the facts right the first time, it is an important and precedent-setting corrective that needed to be made for readers to get an accurate picture of the reality on the ground in Gaza and to clearly understand that Israel strenuously disputes claims that international law obligates the Jewish state to facilitate aid into Hamas-run Gaza; where the terror group steals the aid, gives it to its terror operatives and resells it at a profit to underwrite their terrorist activities.
