Urgently needed – a ‘Palestinian-Montrealer’!

How and why Canadian public media sent me on a wild goose chase.

On May 11, as Israel was unleashing its military machine in occupied Jerusalem and elsewhere, I was put into contact with CBC Radio-Montreal who were looking for someone to interview to discuss the violent events in Sheikh Jarrah. After offering myself to speak on one of their programmes on the requested day of May 12, I was told that they would love to book me on the show. Alas, the person had to be specifically, and I quote, a “Palestinian-Montrealer”. Apparently, it is their strict policy that all guests on the show had to be Montrealers. Moreover, I now had one hour to search for this specific sub-species of a Palestinian. Fine. In 40 minutes, I found not one, but two Palestinian-Montrealers, able and willing to be interviewed. I even checked with these two people. And they confirmed to me that every day they wake up, they think: “Wow, isn’t it great to be a Palestinian-Montrealer!” Only when those two words are combined, do they feel complete! Their combination is the defining feature of their very existence and the source of all of their expertise and knowledge about what was happening in Sheikh Jarrah!