When you know better, you do better; Honest Reporting Canada accuses the Toronto Caribbean Newspaper of Anti-Semitic Conspiracies

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

“It has been said that Jews are the canary in the mine. Hatred against them will eventually be transferred to other minorities. Your responsibility to the Caribbean people demands that you stand for fairness and equality for all minorities.”

“I am appalled at your anti-Semitic article that appeared in your paper. Please issue an immediate apology. I trust this odious article was due to your ignorance, not any anti-Semitism on your part.”

“Ya Mon,
Why would you print a nasty anti-Semitic article by this person, Steven Kaszab.
He gets all his facts wrong!”

One by one, the emails rolled in. The three of us, Grant Browning, Trish Browning, and myself sat together and read each and every emotionally driven email. We heard and felt the anger through the email, and we accepted that somehow, an article that had appeared in our publication had offended members of a community.

As a team, we asked ourselves some questions; was there more about this topic that we needed to know? Yes! Did the representing community know something that we didn’t? Absolutely.

What we do know is that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict dates back to the end of the nineteenth century. In 1947, the United Nations adopted Resolution 181 (https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-208958/) known as the Partition Plan, which sought to divide the British Mandate of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states.

It was on May 14^th, 1948, the State of Israel was created, sparking the first Arab-Israeli War. The war ended in 1949 with Israel’s victory, but 750,000 Palestinians were displaced, and the territory was divided into three parts: the State of Israel, the West Bank (of the Jordan River), and the Gaza Strip.

Over the following years, tensions rose in the region, particularly between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. (https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/israeli-palestinian-conflict) Tensions remain between these two groups, and there has been worry that renewed tensions will escalate into large-scale violence. According to the Global Conflict Tracker, the United States has an interest in protecting the security of its long-term ally Israel and achieving a lasting deal between Israel and the Palestinian territories, which would improve regional security.

I say all of that to say this; I understand why Mike Fegelman, the Executive Director of Honest Reporting Canada, approached us. In his words, he feels that we have “Published an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that has the potential to fan the flames of hatred against Canada’s Jewish community.”

The article that he is referring to is one written by our Journalist Steven Kaszab, a person who I know is the furthest thing from anything anti. He joined our paper as a concerned citizen, and his volume of work has been nothing less than encouraging, engaging, and empowering to all readers of our paper. There is a line in his article “Israel, a nation that applies a system of oppression, manipulation and racial prejudice towards the Palestinians,” that can be found at (https://torontocaribbean.com/israel-a-nation-that-applies-a-system-of-oppression-manipulation-and-racial-prejudice-towards-the-palestinians/) that states, ““Canadian, American and British politicians continue to kowtow to their populations Jewish Lobbyists,” was mentioned in several of the emails. This is the line that really seems to have sparked the anger that is currently being felt by some members of the Jewish community.

What this had me realize is that the tension that was mentioned earlier between the Jewish community and Palestinians is real, and alive as ever, and as watchdogs for their people, it is in their right to speak out against anyone who comes at their community, and they do this with a unity that is commendable.

On Monday, January 31^st, 2022, another article was published by Honest Reporting Canada, written by Robert Walker. In this article “Toronto Caribbean Newspaper Publishes Column Whitewashing Hamas Terrorism,” Robert states, “Honest Reporting Canada and its subscribers sent scores of complaints to the publication and its editors, but Toronto Caribbean has yet to respond to complaints, nor take any corrective action.

A deeper look into Toronto Caribbean finds that its proclivity to publish anti-Israel misinformation is not new. In a column published on June 9^th, 2021 on TorontoCaribbean.com, Omniya Ali used the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to peddle some of the most egregious and baseless, but nevertheless widely attempted slurs against Israel.”

Once again, I must speak in defense of our past writer Omniya Ali. Her volume of articles written against human rights issues found around the world. She has never slandered or slurred, and it is unfortunate that members of the organization see her work in that light. Really, it is a shame. To say that we have a proclivity meaning; a natural propensity or inclination; a predisposition, to publish anti-Israel misinformation is erroneous, and I am unsure as to why such an assertion has been made. Two articles out of 1000’s of articles do not show proclivity to anything, but I digress.

Honest Reporting Canada is an independent grassroots organization promoting fairness and accuracy in Canadian media coverage of Israel and the Middle East. What they do is monitor the media, recognize excellence and expose inaccuracy and bias in Canadian reporting in the region. Several news outlets have described them as a “Pro-Israel media watchdog group.”

They have called out any publication that they feel reports news that speaks against the Jewish community in any way, and I have provided some examples below:

Exposed: The Dark Anti-Israel Side of Desmond Tutu The Media Never Reported
By Robert Walker January 27^th, 2022

“While the media is justified in recognizing the positive aspects of Tutu’s work, his anti-Israel agenda severely tarnished his legacy, and as uncomfortable as it may be, the media should not shy away from telling the full story of Desmond Tutu.”

CBC Spreads Misinformation About Eviction of Palestinian Family In Sheikh Jarrah
By Mike Fegelman January 20^th, 2022

“On the evening of January 19^th, CBC Radio reported on the eviction of the Salihiyas, a Palestinian family from Sheikh Jarrah (Shimon Hatzadik in Hebrew) in east Jerusalem, but instead of providing adequate context about this controversial issue, CBC gave a platform to unfounded claims that Israel was trying to expropriate the land to give to Jewish residents.”

Time Magazine Gives Cover to Anti-Israel Propaganda Photo In Its Top 100 Photos of 2021 Issue
By Robert Walker January 3^rd, 2022

“In a year of so many important news stories, it was shameful that Time Magazine, a publication with a large Canadian and U.S. readership, chose to single Israel out for exclusive censure and condemnation.”

SIGN OUR PETITION! Toronto Star Gives Hamas A Free Pass In Reporting On Gaza Environmental Crisis
By Robert Walker December 28^th, 2021

Canada’s Media Should Hold NDP To Account For Toxic Anti-Israel Resolutions
By Robert Walker April 14^th, 2021

I appreciate and commend Honest Reporting for what they do for their community. It lies very similarly to the goals and mission of the Toronto Caribbean Newspaper. They show unity is such a powerful way, and I wish in many ways that we as a community were able to do this with such tenacity.

During this time of division, it is sad to know that the words of our writers have been taken the way they have. What would have been appreciated is that instead of blasting us on your website and Social Medias, and throwing words like anti-Semitic at us, is to professionally contact us and discuss with us the issues that you had with the original article. We could have shared perspectives, and desires for change together, found common ground between us, or even better, new ground.

We can admit, there are aspects of this conflict that no one knows except the two groups involved, and we could have worked together to highlight the discrepancies that you felt were in the article and find a way to harmonize instead of using threats, and name-calling.

As news outlets from communities that have been disenfranchised for years, we must find better ways to deal with conflict that does arise. People are not always going to say the right things, and we may never line up the same way, but there are ways that we can gain a deeper understanding of our alternate points of view.

What this did teach us, as a publication, is to be mindful of opinions that our writers do make in their articles. EVERYTHING that is written must be backed up with proof, so that if there is a need to defend a position, we can do so intelligently, and with confidence.

Thank you, Honest Reporting and the Jewish community, for shedding light on the many sides of the conflict between Israel and Palestine. With this knowledge, we can report in a more balanced way, especially when it comes to sensitive topics such as this one. Learning is growing, and when you know better, you do better!