It’s no secret the Denver Post has become increasingly liberal in recent years, and their recent coverage of Colorado’s anti-B.D.S. law is no exception.
The Post’s report on the state’s Public Employees’ Retirement Association divesting from Ben & Jerry’s parent company Unilever argued that Colorado’s 2016 anti-B.D.S. law was intended to punish those opposed to Israel’s “occupation of Palestine:”
The 2016 law in question directs PERA to divest from any company refusing to do business with Israel.
Ben & Jerry’s, a subsidiary of British conglomerate Unilever, announced last summer they were boycotting selling ice cream disputed territories that Israel acquired in the 1967 war.
To comply with the law Colorado’s PERA board voted unanimously earlier this March to begin the process of divesting from $42 million of Unilever holdings.
Post reporter Alex Burness’s reference to Palestine is rather stunning because neither the U.S. nor mainstream media outlets recognize Palestine as a formal sovereign entity.
Longstanding American policy going back decades under Democrat and Republican administrations dictates that Palestine refers to conditions on the ground prior to the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, and that any creation of a Palestine would have to result through direct negotiations with Israel.
An Associated Press reporter was fired last year for making a virtually identical claim about Israel’s supposed “occupation” of Palestine on social media:
“ ‘Objectivity’ feels fickle when the basic terms we use to report news implicitly stake a claim,” she wrote. “Using ‘israel’ but never ‘palestine,’ or ‘war’ but not ‘siege and occupation’ are political choices — yet media make those exact choices all the time without being flagged as biased.”
The reporter, Emily Wilder, was terminated under the AP’s social media policy which states “AP employees must refrain from declaring their views on contentious public issues in any public forum and must not take part in organized action in support of causes or movements.”
It is unclear whether the Denver Post has a similar policy on the books, but what Burness wrote and his editors printed goes well beyond political commentary on social media.
Using terminology like "occupied territories" is not only false, it breeds antisemitism. @denverpost + @alex_burness should apologize and retract the terminology. https://t.co/V70cQUocdT
— Sara Juliet Fruman (@Sara_Fruman) March 18, 2022
Colorado’s largest newspaper literally accused Israel of occupying a nonexistent state in the lede of a story.
It’s difficult to overstate how brazenly biased it is for any journalist to reference Palestine in relation to these disputed territories, let alone with regards to Ben & Jerry’s and their potentially illegal boycott of Israel.
Unilaterally declaring the existence of Palestine is tantamount to arguing the parties involved need not diplomatically resolve their conflict, giving terrorist organizations like Hamas political cover to continue their campaign of violence and terror against Israeli civilians.
Palestinian officials like PA President Mahmoud Abbas also use the supposed existence of a Palestinian state as grounds to threaten Israel.
In a speech last year to the UN General Assembly, Abbas demanded Israel withdraw to the pre-1967 borders or face unspecified repercussions.
“While Palestinian leaders sometimes give lip-service to the idea of a two-state solution, they convey a very different message in word and deed,” the Jewish Virtual Library wrote describing maps that depict Palestine.
“They also communicate what many believe to be their true goal – a single state of Palestine replacing Israel – through imagery such as this map that appeared on the Palestinian Authority web site.”
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who is seen by some as friendlier to America’s political left than his predecessor, opposes the creation of a Palestinian state.
Last year, the Biden administration was forced to walk back a reference to Palestine by a State Department spokesperson, while MSNBC apologized after the network displayed maps inaccurately depicting Palestine in 2015.
Similarly, the New York Times published an inaccurate map depicting Palestine last year, which the paper later later dismissed as “art” that was not intended to depict “literal, factual” history.
Burness’s foray into anti-Israel activism isn’t completely shocking, considering his history at the Colorado Independent, a now near-defunct liberal site where he also inaccurately suggested that Palestine exists as a sovereign state.