CNN calls indigenous Palestinians ‘settlers’ while whitewashing Israeli settler-colonialism

Top US media outlet CNN referred to indigenous Palestinians as “settlers,” in a report whitewashing Israeli settler-colonialism.

The network turned reality on its head, portraying Palestinians defending their ancestral homes as aggressors, and Israeli colonialists illegally trying to take over Jerusalem as victims.

On February 15, CNN published a video report titled “Israeli nationalists clash with Palestinians over Jerusalem housing settlements.”

An archived version of the story shows that it had the following subtitle: “CNN’s Andrew Carey reports on the tensions, that sometimes turn violent, between Israeli nationalists and Palestinian settlers over housing in Jerusalem.”

In reality, the Palestinian inhabitants of Jerusalem are indigenous, and the Israeli “nationalists” described by CNN are far-right extremists who are trying to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians, take over their houses, and colonize their communities, in flagrant violation of international law.

Analyst Trita Parsi drew attention to the scandalous report on Twitter.

“UNBELIEVABLE!,” Parsi wrote. “CNN now claims that Palestinians are SETTLERS, while Israelis are nationalists.”

“CNN not only doesn’t call illegal Israeli settlements ‘settlements’ (but neighborhoods), now they have even started claiming that it is the Palestinians who are the settlers,” he added.

UNBELIEVABLE!

CNN now claims that Palestinians are SETTLERS, while Israelis are nationalists.

CNN not only doesn't call illegal Israeli settlements "settlements" (but neighborhoods), now they have even started claiming that it is the Palestinians who are the settlers… pic.twitter.com/dJrKLjx6CR

— Trita Parsi (@tparsi) February 15, 2022

In response to the backlash, CNN published a correction, writing in a new subtitle, “A previous version of this incorrectly referred to Palestinian homes in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood as settlements and Palestinians as settlers.”

Even mainstream pro-Western lobby organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have acknowledged that Israel is an apartheid regime committing crimes against humanity against the indigenous Palestinian population.

"Palestinians, through their resistance, in all its forms, are forcing even these liberal human rights organizations to recognize the reality" of apartheid, @AliAbunimah explained in the interviewhttps://t.co/FzORmB3UX7

— Multipolarista (@Multipolarista) February 3, 2022