On September 20, 2025, CBC’s The Weekend Morning Show (Manitoba) aired a segment titled "Winnipeggers gather to Run for Palestine," hosted by Nadia Kidwai and featuring Ramsey Zeid, President of the Canadian Palestinian Association of Manitoba. The broadcast, as covered by HonestReporting Canada, quickly drew criticism for what many described as a narrow, anti-Israel focus—a pattern that, according to critics, has become all too familiar on Kidwai’s program. Pro-Israel voices, they argue, are notably absent from her lineup, with the show routinely offering a platform to guests who are vocally critical of Israel’s actions and policies.
During the segment, Zeid, who has previously made remarks rationalizing the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks and referred to all of Israel as "occupied" Palestinian territory (a stance interpreted as denying Israel’s right to exist), discussed the local "Run for Palestine" event. This initiative, he explained, aims to send its proceeds to Gaza through a partnership with Islamic Relief Canada—an organization he described as "an amazing foundation." Yet, as HonestReporting Canada noted, Islamic Relief Canada is affiliated with Islamic Relief Worldwide, which has faced accusations of antisemitism and alleged links to Hamas, leading the United States to cut ties with the global body in 2021.
Kidwai opened the conversation with a striking claim: "A UN commission of inquiry concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza." Zeid later echoed this, stating, "And, you know that the UN has declared it a genocide." However, as HonestReporting Canada clarified, the distinction is crucial—a UN-appointed Commission of Inquiry made such a declaration, not the United Nations itself. The commission has itself been criticized for anti-Israel bias, with organizations like UN Watch labeling it "a perpetual inquisition against Israel." Notably, major Western governments, including the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany, have publicly stated that they do not believe genocide is occurring in Gaza. This context, however, was left unaddressed during the broadcast.
Food insecurity in Gaza was another focal point. Kidwai asserted that the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), described as "the world’s leading authority on food crises," had declared famine in Gaza City. Yet, this report, too, has come under fire for what critics say are biased methods and misuse of famine thresholds. The sampling, they argue, was unrepresentative, and the IPC’s conclusions have been robustly challenged by multiple observers. Despite these criticisms, the broadcast presented the famine declaration as uncontested fact.
The conversation then turned to humanitarian aid, with Kidwai stating, "last month, over a 100 aid groups… accused Israel of weaponizing aid by preventing enough aid from entering into Gaza." Zeid added, "Aid has been coming in very slowly and very limited." But crucial facts went unmentioned: since the start of the war, Israel has facilitated the entry of over 2,097,488 tonnes of aid into Gaza. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, co-founded by Israel, has delivered more than 175 million meals since May 2025. While the segment focused on accusations against Israel, it omitted discussion of Hamas’s documented role in hijacking aid for resale or blocking Gazans from accessing humanitarian assistance, as reported by HonestReporting Canada.
Perhaps most striking was the pair’s response to a deadly incident in September 2025. Kidwai described how a driver, transporting humanitarian aid from Jordan for Gaza, killed two Israeli military personnel at a crossing into the occupied West Bank before being shot by Israeli security forces. She stated, "no group immediately claimed responsibility for what Israel described as a terror attack," and then asked Zeid how such events complicate aid delivery. There was no mention of the victims’ ages—20 and 68—or the impact on their families and communities. Zeid replied, "they’re gonna call it a number of things, probably including a terrorist attack, but we really don’t know what happened, what the background was of the driver. Maybe he has family in Gaza. You know? Maybe he’s had family that was displaced. Maybe he’s had family that has been killed. Maybe he’s been in a truck for weeks, and the aid in his truck or the food in his truck has gone bad, and he’s upset. We don’t know exactly why, what transpired, what his thinking was." Kidwai did not challenge or critique these remarks.
The segment, critics argue, exemplifies a broader trend in Western discourse around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—one that, in their view, downplays or omits context, history, and the complexity of the situation. This trend has been mirrored on the world stage. In October 2025, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada each announced formal recognition of a Palestinian state. According to critics, including those cited in a widely discussed analysis, this move reflects "willful ignorance, historical amnesia, and political arrogance." These governments justified their decisions as steps toward peace and a revived "two-state solution." Yet, as the critique points out, this reasoning ignores more than a century of Arab and Palestinian rejection of Jewish statehood, from the 1937 Peel Commission and the 1947 UN Partition Plan, through Israeli proposals in 1951 and 2008, to the Camp David summit in 2000 and the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.
"For over 100 years, the Arabs have been consistent in their rejection of the very existence of a Jewish state. Recognizing the non-existent ‘State of Palestine’ is not going to change their position," the analysis contends. Instead, it argues, such recognition "will correctly be perceived by the Arabs, predominantly the Palestinians, not only as a reward for the October 7 massacre, but also as a prize for their constant rejection of any negotiated solution." Far from advancing peace, the move is seen as emboldening rejectionist factions and potentially forcing pragmatic Palestinian leaders to harden their positions.
Another point of contention is the repeated postponement or cancellation of democratic elections by Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Mahmoud Abbas. Despite Palestinian law mandating elections every four years, Abbas is now in his twenty-first year of his first four-year term as PA chairman. The last parliamentary election was held in 2006, resulting in a Hamas victory; the parliament was dissolved in December 2018, and promised elections have been repeatedly delayed or canceled. Nonetheless, the UK, Australia, and Canada based their recognition on commitments from Abbas to hold elections—commitments that critics say are vague or unfulfilled. The Canadian statement, for example, claimed Abbas would hold general elections in 2026, but previous promises have not materialized.
Western leaders also imposed restrictions excluding Hamas from any future elections, despite Hamas’s electoral win in 2006 and its ongoing popularity among Palestinians. Critics argue that such stipulations undermine the legitimacy of any democratic process, creating what they call a hollow democracy. As the analysis observes, "Holding Palestinian elections subject to the colonial stipulations of the British, Canadians, and Australians would create a Palestinian ‘democracy’ similar to that of Soviet Russia: Everyone can vote, but there is only one party, a corrupt, terror-supporting party to vote for."
While British and Canadian leaders have insisted their recognition is not a reward for terror, the article asserts that Palestinians see a clear connection: "The more Jews they murder, the greater the diplomatic reward." The decisions by London, Canberra, and Ottawa are thus portrayed as acts of moral blindness that embolden extremism, undermine reform, and further delegitimize Israel’s right to self-defense.
In the wake of these developments, the debate over media coverage, international diplomacy, and the path to peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains as heated and complex as ever. The events of September and October 2025 have only deepened the divides—both on the airwaves and on the global stage.
