It is no secret that the North American media has played a major role in the unresolved assault on the Palestinian people. The pro-Israel bias is evident throughout the print and television media, not so much by what is said but by what is not said: the history and context of the crisis is never presented.

The public has been led to believe that this is a hopeless endless war with both sides to blame. This is a blatant fabrication to discredit the legitimacy of the Palestinian struggle and downplay the urgency of stopping obvious crimes against humanity.

The Palestinian people have been and are terrorized by Israel with massive military and financial support from the United States. They struggle to survive in poverty in the West Bank and Gaza, a mere fraction of what was their homeland. The theft of land continues daily with the building of settlements, settler-only roads and security zones, and Israel's so-called Security Wall which juts up to 10 kilometres into the West Bank.

It is not a matter of both sides to blame. Under the guise of appearing neutral and unbiased, the media is helping to perpetuate an enormous lie.

The omission of important facts has made the situation seem incomprehensible and resulted in a high level of public apathy that has greatly contributed to government inaction. The injustice of the Palestinian situation, the silence in the media and the United States' unconditional support of Israel have created a great deal of bitterness among the population of other Middle Eastern countries, fuelling the ranks of terrorist organizations.

One of the many media distortions put forth by pro-Israel political "analysts" is that this basic struggle for independence on the part of the Palestinians is too complex to solve, let alone understand, and that these two peoples have always been in conflict. None of this is true. Until the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 and the expulsion of the Palestinians that followed, both peoples lived in relative peace as neighbours.

There are many double standards in regards to the Israeli Palestinian conflict. The media and government officials pay lip service to Israel's right to defend itself while attempts at self-defence on the part of Palestinians, whose land is occupied, are described as terrorist acts. The first suicide bombing did not occur until 1994, after 27 years of occupation, settlement building, land confiscations and home demolitions and numerous appeals to the United Nations.

After all of this, a small minority of citizens have been driven to unthinkable, desperate, horrific acts of suicide bombing. How many Canadians can claim with complete assurance that someone they love would never be affected in the same manner if put in a situation of long-term injustice where all peaceful means of resolution have seemingly been exhausted?

In a sense, the suicide bombings say more about the intransigence and brutality of the occupier and the immoral lack of will to uphold international laws on the part of the international community than they say about the Palestinian people.

In many instances, especially since 9-11, what has passed for "news or commentary in the CanWest/Global media is nothing short of hate filled propaganda and journalistic negligence that must be seen as a breach of constitutional ethics. The unknowing public is misled by downplayed and confusing terms, such as "settlement", "occupation", "curfew" and "roadblock" without mention of the effects on the lives of the Palestinian people or any historical background information.

It is unfortunate enough when the media giant CanWest, that owns many newspapers and television stations across the country, announces that it is decidedly pro-Israel, but to also have the publicly funded networks CBC and TV Ontario consistently saturate its "news" coverage and political "debates" with the same sometimes subtle but often obvious bias on an issue that holds such relevance to world peace and stability is irresponsible.

The Ottawa Public Library offers videos such as the CBC produced "Battle for Survival - The Arab Israeli Six Day War" featuring the "documentary" propaganda film " Strike Zion!" with its Hollywood movie style cover graphics. Other biased videos such as " The Middle East - The Clash of History" by the Canadian Armed Forces and PBS's farce "The 50 Years War - Israel and the Arabs" are being offered to the Canadian community as truthful accounts, as they amazingly breeze over the initial and continued Palestinian catastrophe.

These films give no context - in effect denying historical facts. If they were biased against Israel, the Anti-Defamation League would be in the media to discredit them instantly and they might be removed as hate material. Our Canadian media networks in their overt anti-Palestinian bias have consciously mirrored their American counterparts in the bizarre assault on and outright lies against a victimized people.

An ill-informed public cannot demand that our government take appropriate action to end the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.  The pro-Israel media in North America seems to know this as it remains one of the only conflicts that is continually revisited but, strangely, almost never presented with an accurate and full context.

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