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Major Canadian News Outlet Apologizes After Airing Gaza War Footage During Hanukkah Story
Israel’s military operates in the Gaza Strip during a temporary truce between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, in this handout picture released on Nov. 27, 2023. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS
CTV News Toronto has issued an on-air apology after the Canadian broadcaster showed footage of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza while airing a report on how the local community in Toronto was preparing to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights.
“We mistakenly aired images of the war in the Middle East while reporting on the beginning of Hanukkah,” CTV News anchor Zuraidah Alman said in the apology on Thursday. “We are deeply sorry that this occurred during our coverage of this important and special event.”
The news outlet blamed a “technical issue” for the war footage being aired.
Today, a @CTVToronto story was broadcast about Chanukah but included images and footage of the war in #Israel instead of what should have obviously been the proper holiday content. @CTVToronto apologized on air during the 5 and 6 p.m. broadcasts and the segment has been fixed.… pic.twitter.com/ZDwWdZPK0T
— CIJA (@CIJAinfo) December 8, 2023
Earlier in the day, CTV News aired a noon-hour news story on how Toronto was going to observe the start of Hanukkah that night, highlighting the lighting of a large menorah at Mel Lastman Square.
However, as a reporter was discussing the local Jewish community’s plans for the holiday, the news segment showed footage of the war in Gaza between Israel and the Hamas terror group for about 20-25 seconds.
CTV in Toronto did a story about how Hanukkah is celebrated in the city.
Somebody working there couldn’t take a Jewish holiday being celebrated so he sabotaged the report
pic.twitter.com/o0wegwPT2q
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) December 7, 2023
Jewish and pro-Israel groups decried what appeared to be an attempt to link Israel’s defensive war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza to Jewish holiday celebrations halfway around the world.
“What is this, @CTVToronto? Is there no time delay for live broadcasts?” B’nai Brith Canada, a Jewish human rights organization, wrote on X/Twitter. “Which employee made the editorial decision to link the war against Hamas in Gaza to the Jewish holiday of Chanukah? Please explain why anyone should believe this was not a premeditated act of #antisemitism.”
HonestReporting Canada, an organization that promotes fairness and accuracy in Canadian media coverage of Israel and the Middle East, lodged a complaint with CTV News after the segment aired.
“In what should have been a happy segment, one which focuses on the story of Hanukkah, light triumphing over darkness, viewers instead were treated to a segment, which insinuated that Jews are collectively intertwined and responsible for the war in Gaza,” HonestReporting Canada wrote of the incident on its website.
According to the world’s leading definition of antisemitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel is antisemitic.
Despite CTV News’ apology, many observers suspected the airing of the war footage was deliberate.
“I feel there was a deliberate sabotage act on Hanukkah,” Olga Goldberg, who was attending Thursday’s opening night of the menorah lighting, told the Toronto Sun. She added that it felt like the video was “intentionally placed” to demonize Jewish people.
Thursday’s segment came three days after CTV News anchor Omar Sachedina introduced a story by suggesting a peaceful rally of Jewish and pro-Israel activists was “in support of the war” in Gaza.
“In Ottawa, thousands of Jewish Canadians rallied on Parliament Hill in support of the war while inside Parliament, Palestinian Canadians made a plea for help,” Sachedina said, setting up the news story for a reporter in the field.
A CTV anchor falsely claimed the peaceful Rally for the Jewish People was a rally in support of the war.
This is a prime example of why a growing number of people hate mainstream media. Do better, @CTVNews
— Beth Baisch (@BethBaisch) December 5, 2023
At the rally, demonstrators said they were showing solidarity with the people of Israel and the hostages and victims from Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israeli communities. Hamas terrorists’ surprise invasion of Israel and murderous rampage — in which 1,200 people were killed and 240 abducted — launched the current war in Gaza.
“We are deeply disturbed by @CTVNews misrepresenting yesterday’s peaceful ‘Rally for the Jewish People’ in Ottawa that was attended by thousands of Jews, including students and Holocaust survivors, as being pro-war,” the group Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies posted on X/Twitter. “The poignant pleas from the families of those held hostage by Hamas, as well as those whose loved ones were murdered, were anything but. We call for a retraction and an apology.”
CTV News has yet to comment on the incident.
The post Major Canadian News Outlet Apologizes After Airing Gaza War Footage During Hanukkah Story first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Treasure Trove remembers the entertaining Jan and Lillian Bart, top fundraisers for Israel Bonds
Jan Bart (1919-1971) began his career as a cantor, but became a popular entertainer and Yiddish recording artist who dedicated his career to raising funds for Israel.
Bart was born in Poland and immigrated to the United States in 1930. He had a long-running radio program in the New York area, appeared on the Milton Berle television show and starred in the Yiddish film Catskill Honeymoon. One of Bart’s best-selling records was Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish.
When the State of Israel was proclaimed in 1948, Bart dedicated his life and talents to raising funds for the new country. He started by pleading into a megaphone from the back of an open station wagon that the existence of Israel was central to the survival of the Jewish people, and that funds were desperately needed.
When the Israel Bonds program was initiated in 1951, he was asked to sing at the first meeting in Miami. He combined songs and stories with his gift as a fundraiser resulting in events that regularly raised double and sometimes triple the expected return. Over a 20-year period, he appeared at more than 2,200 Israel Bond events in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia and raised more money for Israel than any other entertainer.
Bart toured with his wife Lillian, who was also an accomplished singer. In November 1965, the Barts toured Toronto with Israel Bonds which arranged a performance at almost every synagogue and organization in the city.
During a 22-day visit, they gave 30 performances for multiple Bnai Brith lodges and synagogues, including Shaarei Shomayim, Beth Emeth-Bais Yehuda, Beth Sholom, Clanton Park, Shaarei Tefillah and Beth Tzedec, as well as for groups like Pioneer Women, Hadassah and Mizrachi and several mutual benefit societies.
At the end of the tour, the Barts received a scrapbook of newspaper clippings and letters “in recognition of their outstanding contribution to the 1965 State of Israel Bond Campaign in Toronto through their magnificent interpretation of the lyrics from Fiddler on the Roof and their heart-warming message conveyed to every organization and synagogue in the Jewish community of Toronto.”
The way that the Toronto Jewish community united 60 years ago is an example for us today.
The scrapbook has recently been donated to the Ontario Jewish Archives by the Barts’ daughter, Judy Bart Kancigor, a California-based food journalist and the author of Cooking Jewish: 532 Recipes from the Rabinowitz Family.
The post Treasure Trove remembers the entertaining Jan and Lillian Bart, top fundraisers for Israel Bonds appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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PA Security Forces End Standoff with Jenin Battalion, Enter West Bank Camp
Illustrative. Palestinian demonstrators call for an end to clashes between Palestinian security forces and terrorists in Jenin, in the West Bank, Dec. 16, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta
i24 News – The Palestinian Authority on Friday reached an agreement with the jihadists of the Jenin Battalion, ending a six-week standoff in the northern West Bank terror hotbed.
The Jenin Battalion is a local jihadist militia affiliated with Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.
The PA’s engineering and civil defense crews will begin dismantling explosives planted across Jenin, Palestinian media reported.
A Palestinian security source told i24NEWS that not a single weapon has been handed over by the Jenin Battalion to PA security forces.
The post PA Security Forces End Standoff with Jenin Battalion, Enter West Bank Camp first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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With Hamas Yet to Name 3 First Hostages to Be Released, Netanyahu Slams Violation of Agreement
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a news conference in Jerusalem, Sept. 2, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – Hamas violated the terms of its agreement with Israel even before the ceasefire went into effect, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointed out on Saturday.
The jihadist group failed to submit to Israel the names of the three hostages slated to be freed on Sunday, in contravention to the terms of the ceasefire stipulating that this information be communicated 24 hours in advance.
“We will not move forward with the outline until we receive the list of hostages to be released, as agreed. Israel will not tolerate violations of the agreement,” Netanyahu said some three hours after the names should have been submitted. “The sole responsibility lies with Hamas.”
The post With Hamas Yet to Name 3 First Hostages to Be Released, Netanyahu Slams Violation of Agreement first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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