By Doğan Akman
The mass media has been implicitly or explicitly, by laziness, willful ignorance or sheer prejudice and other moral and intellectual handicaps has been pummelling Israel and Israelis, and in the process has become a source that feeds antisemitism, anti-Zionism that incites Canadians with similar states or frames of mind to engage in ignorant and vile (i&v) behaviour against the Jewish community and its members; their institutions and businesses.
In the process, the mass media and these i&v Canadians who do not know, rather not know or cannot be bothered enough to learn about the sorrowful lives and hopeless fates of Palestinians living in some Arab countries. And if they happen to know, they do not care about it enough to give a hand to help alleviate their plight.
In the meantime, the mass media and all Canadians cheer the large sums donated to UNRWA which is under the thumb of Hamas and functions in accordance with its perfidious wishes and demands and some of those of those of the government of the corrupt Palestinian Authority. I leave this topic for another day.
The particulars of the evidence of the bitter life experiences of the Palestinians living in these Arab countries are voluminous. In the circumstances, I propose to focus on and deal with them, in a novel and rather unorthodox way, by presenting the readers with one of many sources of the information available to me on this subject, to read and reflect upon at their convenience and draw their own conclusions.
The source in this instance comprises the following five articles by Khaled Abu Toameh, a respected Arab Israeli writer and commentator, whose publications are based on sound research and analysis. These are:
May 8, 2020-Apartheid and Coronavirus in the Middle East https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15979/apartheid-coronavirus-lebanon
June 19, 2020- The Palestinians No One Tells You About https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16125/palestinians-iraq
July 24, 2020- Palestinians: Victims of Arab Racism https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16273/palestinians-arab-racism
January 21, 2021-Palestinians: Victims of An Arab Country https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16948/palestinians-victims-syria
February 5, 2021-Human Rights Violations No One Talks About https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16964/gaza-human-rights
None of the foregoing information, and particularly that provided in Toameh’s February 5, 2021 article has seen the light of day in the Canadian mass media, in regards to any stories about the events of the recent Hamas- Israel war.
It does not bode well for Canada when the Canadian mass media engages in self-censorship to the prejudice of Israel, as it has done for a good while. Lack of factual information allows the i&v types, particularly those who are a) refugees or immigrants who cannot or simply do not want to leave back home their religious beliefs or ideological orientation that perpetuates hatred of Jews and of Israel, nor will they send this belief and ideological package back home even after they become Canadian citizens; and b) Canadians who share the same religious beliefs and/or similar ideological orientations, damned be the facts on the ground.
What must Canadians do to educate and integrate people whose backgrounds and beliefs are counter to Canadian values of inclusion and tolerance, freedom and equality?