HonestReporting Forces Guardian to Retract Claim That Tel Aviv is Capital of Israel
August 8, 2012 11:33 by Simon Plosker
While we were asking the residents of Tel Aviv where they considered Israel’s capital to be, there has been much activity behind the scenes. In a significant achievement for HonestReporting, The Guardian has retracted its claim that Tel Aviv is the capital of Israel, writing unequivocally on Wednesday:
we accept that it is wrong to state that Tel Aviv – the country’s financial and diplomatic centre – is the capital.
Back in May, The Guardian posted a photo of passengers on Jerusalem’s light rail observing a minute’s silence for Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day. The caption, however, prompted a “correction” from The Guardian, which had originally (and correctly) referred to Jerusalem as Israel’s capital:
The caption on a photograph featuring passengers on a tram in Jerusalem observing a two-minute silence for Yom HaShoah, a day of remembrance for the 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust, wrongly referred to the city as the Israeli capital. The Guardian style guide states: “Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel; Tel Aviv is” (Eyewitness, 20 April, page 24).
Believing The Guardian to be in clear breach of the UK Press Complaints Commission clause on accuracy, HonestReporting submitted an official complaint. To our and every sensible person’s astonishment, the PCC ruled in favor of The Guardian, stating that the newspaper was entitled to refer to Tel Aviv as Israel’s capital and was not in breach of accuracy clauses.
Despite the fact that there is no recourse for appealing a PCC ruling, HonestReporting was not prepared to let this stand. Advised by UK solicitors Asserson Law Offices, for the first time in HonestReporting’s history, we launched legal proceedings against the PCC with the threat of a judicial review of the PCC’s decision.
In response to HonestReporting’s pressure on the PCC, The Guardian backed down from its claim, issuing a correction. It also changed its style guide, which had stated that Tel Aviv is the capital of Israel, to reflect the correction.
Although The Guardian has been forced to withdraw its absurd suggestion regarding the status of Tel Aviv, the wording of The Guardian’s correction has not been agreed after the newspaper unilaterally terminated its negotiations with HonestReporting.
HonestReporting still awaits a new ruling from the PCC to replace the faulty decision it issued in May and agreed to reconsider in July.
HonestReporting’s CEO Joe Hyams said in response:
This correction is a significant achievement against a newspaper that has been a major contributor to the broader delegitimization of Israel in the UK and beyond.
It is shocking that it has taken the threat of legal action to reverse a decision that was not based on reality. Nonetheless, it was vital that HonestReporting took on The Guardian and the PCC as a matter of principle, particularly at a time when Jerusalem’s status as Israel’s capital is increasingly being called into question by the media.
Now that The Guardian has admitted that it was wrong, we call on the PCC to issue a new ruling categorically stating that Tel Aviv is not Israel’s capital so that it is clear to the British media that it will not be allowed to repeat this error.
In April 2011, MediaWeek reported that The Guardian is the fifth most popular newspaper site in the world drawing a daily average of nearly 3 million browsers. In addition, The Guardian’s print edition is widely read by many of the left and liberal elites in Britain, which makes it vital that the newspaper is held to account for its anti-Israel bias.
Image: CC BY-SA HonestReporting.com, flickr/shordzi.
Ruedi
3:51 pm
Aug 14, 2012
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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Sylvie Schapira
4:20 pm
Aug 14, 2012
To ignore their refusal to accept Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel, is to ignore just another step in the delegitimization of Israel. It is not the same thing at all as the example you give. This is a very real threat and a political step in the process of destroying Israel. Perhaps we are paranoid. I believe that we are right to be vigilant. If more Jews in Germany had protested or left earlier when all the signs were starting up, ……….I certainly am not prepared to be a by-stander this time around. Without Israel, the Jewish people will be even more vulnerable. Can’t think the same thing applies to Canada. What existential threat does Canada face?
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Ruedi
4:31 pm
Aug 14, 2012
Of course the same applies to Canada ! To assume that the existence of Israel depends on the opinion of a few rags and ignorant people in the UK is giving them way too much importance. I agree that they need to be taken to task on their mistakes but that is where it ends.
By the way the US would like nothing more than to annex Canada for various reasons and are trying to control our Democracy in a rather imperial way ! And they interfere with Israels politics a lot.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Peter
10:19 pm
Aug 20, 2012
“By the way the US would like nothing more than to annex Canada ”
Talk about deranged paranoia …
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Morsi Ousts Egyptian Military Leaders | The Conservative Papers
1:10 pm
Aug 15, 2012
[...] Simon Plosker got op-ed space in the Jerusalem Post to expand on HonestReporting’s legal victory over The [...]
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Brent Pudsey
2:04 pm
Aug 16, 2012
This is excellent news that is encouraging on 2 fronts. First and foremost it is good to hear that Israel is getting acknowledged in the press and that biases and faleshoods about her are being corrected. Secondly it is encouraging to see what the efforts of concerned people around the world is doing in effecting change in the media.
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Sylvie Schapira
9:56 am
Aug 21, 2012
Last word on Canada: Whatever the political problems you face, Canada does NOT face an existential threat i.e. total destruction. This is the bottom line. Israel does! And every leftist-Islamic rant in the media is another step nearer towards delegitimization/destruction of Israel.Refusing to acknowledge the capital of Israel is an example of this vile strategy. I hope you can tell the difference….
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Ruedi
2:00 pm
Aug 21, 2012
I see nothing wrong in correcting the ignorance of the British Press. The fact that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel is well known to the rest of the world. Great Britain does not speak for all and the British press and its journalists (who once were great) are obviously getting rather sloppy. They need to be taken to task for this. Yet I find you are going too far in trying to convince me that there is a dark force behind those rags that drives a campaign for the elimination of Israel from the Middle East. I agree that the US imposing their political and economic beliefs on Canada does not present an existential threat, rather an economical one.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Tony Jacobs
7:33 pm
Oct 13, 2012
These people aren’t ignorant. They know the truth, but have no qualms about lying to their readers.
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luciano tanto
3:02 pm
Aug 22, 2012
…and the capital of the united kingdom is washington.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Motti
11:52 am
Sep 07, 2012
No it’s not, like all counries in the EU, it Brussells. A wonderful non democratic, corrput regime headed by non elected, self applauding and funded morons
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Sylvie Schapira
11:14 am
Aug 23, 2012
The media is a powerful tool in spreading propaganda. The BBC buys copies of The Guardian to give to all its staff (at the taxpayers expense) which is outrageous, but also shows how the Leftists are receiving the same stories about Israel. They don’t have to be the ones who are ‘driving the campaign to eliminate Israel’, but their frequent, negatively obsessive opinions and articles regarding Israel, are all part of the expanding campaign that does desire the elimination of Israel. The greater picture here are: the churches, the trades unions, universities, commerce, and some international charities. This is an Islamic-Leftist movement. You need to have an understanding of this.
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Ruedi
3:33 am
Aug 24, 2012
I fail to see the expansion of an existing ignorance about Israel. I truly think that you should have a good sleep before you suffer from another Islamic – Left attack syndrome. I am a left handed friend of Israel and I am offended by such prejudice. You try to imply that there is brainwashing going on at the BBC? If you you know about it expose it ! Who is watching BBC in the world ? As far as I know it is not worse as Fox News, or ABC or NBC or…, which I don’t watch either. Next you want to tell me that Canada as a whole does not like Israel because it allows BBC to broadcast ?
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steve mann
11:48 am
Aug 24, 2012
How do you expose it-? Who can you persuade to investigate it?
What pressure can you put on them?
Hell man! they will not even publish the Malcom Balen report from 2004- Thats after the late Steven Sugar spent time and money dragging them through the courts-
Then look up the CV`s of the BBC Journalists, Editors and past directors-
They have even banned their presenters using the words “Islamic Terrorist”
See what Right Wing politicians such as Margaret Thatcher thought about the BBC- then you will know its a fct that the far left of centre rules. BBC -Guardian- one in the same.
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Sylvie Schapira
10:35 am
Aug 24, 2012
What is a ‘left-handed friend of Israel’? Sounds awkward. As for being offended, you will have to try and live with that, because there is a lot of offence being broadcast by various medium. For instance, the refusal of The Guardian to acknowledge Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. And the BBC is awash with Leftist attitudes, as is well known (not apparently to you…) As for the strange pairing of Islamicists with Leftists, it is all offensive, but that does not make it go away just saying that. Read some more of Honest Reporting and you may learn about this; it is important to understand it if you are telling everyone that you are a ‘left-handed friend of Israel’.
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Sylvie Schapira
10:45 am
Aug 24, 2012
If you care about Israel, why not put your energies into becoming aware of the anti-Israel problem that is increasing, aided by Leftist-Islamic hatred, instead of getting angry with my comments. There are more impartial journalists in this country who use terms like ‘pinko-facists’ and ‘Jihadist-Lefties’. It is a puzzle to me that Leftists who bleat about human rights can get into bed with Jihadists who treat women and gays as objects, castrate little girls, kill female adulterers, etc. Honest Reporting are going to great lengths to expose the erosion of free speech, and the various organisations that are bent on destroying Israel. Why not be useful and help them?
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Ruedi
12:31 pm
Aug 24, 2012
I am living in Canada and because I believe that the socialist system (on which by the way Israel is founded) is a natural one, well compatible with human values of empathy and compassion, I am considered a leftist. I am certain that I would not be called a leftist in Israel. Not ignorant at all, I am reading Honest Reporting and frequently Israeli newspapers that give me true information about the country unlike the right leaning papers and TV stations of North America. I am well aware about anti Jewish feelings even in Canada and have been classified as a Jew at times by fellow workers who have Islamic origins. BBC and the Guardian full of leftist closet Islamists ???
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steve mann
2:42 pm
Aug 24, 2012
Yes Ruedi- They are- I live in the UK- I have to fight this garbage every day of the week.
An employee of the BBC has admitted to it- One Andrew Marr. A well known BBC journalist.
And why do you think the BBC will not publish the Michael Balen report- They commissioned it in 2004 because they were accused of anti-Israeli bias.
Sure the first Kibbutz was started by 12 ardent Zionists-
However the extreme Soviet loving Left Wingers have never forgiven Israel for siding with the USA instead of the USSR.
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Sylvie Schapira
1:06 pm
Aug 24, 2012
Canada, under the premiership of Stephen Harper is considered to be Israel’s best friend in the world at this present time, even more so than the US. Yet 59% of Canadians surveyed in the BBC poll harbor negative opinions of Israel. So evidently, it’s not the Canadian government that is affecting the Canadian public’s perceptions towards Israel.
Don’t think that there is anything ‘closet’ about that do you?
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Jack
7:33 am
Sep 12, 2012
May Britannia perish.
Amen.
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HonestReporting Wins Precedent-Setting Ruling On Jerusalem As Israel’s Capital | Blogs about Israel aggregation
2:04 pm
Oct 03, 2012
[...] background on the story of HonestReporting’s legal action against the PCC and The Guardian seehttp://honestreporting.com/breaking-news-honestreporting-forces-guardian-to-retract-claim-that-tel-a… Rate this:Share this:MoreLike this:LikeBe the first to like [...]
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Mohammed
8:15 am
Oct 11, 2012
I like the answer of this German Scholar when he was asked about terrorism and Islam: He said:
· Who started the First World War, which killed 37 million and injured 22, 379, 053 that includes 7 million civilians? Muslims?
· Who started the Second World War, which killed over 60 million, which was over 2.5% of the world population? Muslims?
· Who killed about 20 million of Aborigines in Australia? Muslims?
· Who drop the nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which killed 166,000 people in Hiroshima and 80,000 in Nagasaki? Muslims?
· Who killed more than 100 million Red Indians in North America? Muslims?
· Who killed more than 50 million Indian in South America? Muslims?
· Who took about 180 million African people as slaves and when 88% of them died, threw them into the Atlantic Ocean? Muslims?
NO
They weren’t Muslims! First of all, you have to define terrorism properly…. If a non-Muslim does something bad… it is crime. But if a Muslim commits the same, he is a terrorist. So first remove the double standard… then come to the point.
*** Just for your information ***
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steve mann
11:58 am
Oct 11, 2012
Sir,
You are now confusing wars with terrorism-!
For example all the Carnage in New York, Washington, London, Istanbul, Bali, Beslan, Buenos Aires, Jerba, Jakarta, Jerusalem, Madrid, Mombassa, Moscow, Mumbai,
Yemen, Dafur, Nigeria, Kashmir, Zhengzhou, are down to pure terrorism- Not one country against another. Those are shear terror put upon different nations by one group of people not from any nation but from one ideology-
Jihadi Islam.
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Tony Jacobs
12:48 am
Oct 13, 2012
Maybe Islam didn’t start the 1st and 2nd World Wars, but since the inception of Islam around 700ad, they’ve butchered their way across Africa, Asia and parts of Europe. They didn’t have the technology to travel to Australia or America, but they are happy to take our technology and use it to murder us. Muslims don’t have a nuke yet, but if they ever do, it won’t be a few hundred thousand that die to end a war that was forced on them, it will be 6 million Israelis to start with. And who was it that first took black slaves? And which countries still have slavery? When an infidel does it, it’s colonialist terrorism, but for a Muslim that same crime is a ticket to paradise.
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ruth cohen
9:44 am
Oct 13, 2012
shalom tony
israel is the safest place in the world for jews today despite all – we are now in the war, the ultimate war of gog and magog and to be saved jews need to be here with us now. yes we will be hit no doubt but more of us will survive here than anyplace else – when you live in israel day by day you see the hand of the living god here with us, so many miracles. and i agree with what you say about using technology to advance the muslim kill,kill,kill policies.
israel will survive, we have a long history in surviving the odds. we have a mighty creator and we just spent simhat torah dancing day and night all around our little land and that is our strength and our protection.
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Peter
5:21 pm
Oct 15, 2012
Muslims have been murdering their way across the Middle East, North Africa and large swathes of Europe for the last 1400 years.
Of course, to the likes of Mohammad that doesn’t count: the victims were merely kuffars, barely better than monkeys and pigs.
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Sylvie Schapira
10:33 am
Oct 11, 2012
Mohammed. You have given us a lot of historical facts – which are probably right, though I haven’t checked them; you have omitted really important historical facts. Your prophet Mohammed did his share of slaughter, slave taking, abduction, when tribes would not accept him as the prophet and messenger of Allah. I hope you know your own history to know this? And what about d’himmitude? This is still in existence today! – the subjugation, extortionist taxes on infidels/inferiors living in Islamic countries who do not convert. This would be the hapless lot of all non-Muslims living with a majority Muslim rule. Just look around you at the Islamic states today. Despotic rulers and mass murderers.
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Starofdavid
12:50 pm
Oct 11, 2012
Hahahahahahahahahahha Erdogan/Turkey is blockading Syria. Does that mean he’ll now be sending a flotilla to himself to complain against his blockade
Ps Mohammed. Don’t conflagrate war between nations/armies and terrorism perpetrated on civilians – by Muslim terrorists on Jews Christians and fellow Muslims -ALL OVER THE ME AND N AFRICA EUROPE AMERICA ETC
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Sylvie Schapira
6:00 pm
Oct 11, 2012
Mohammed, may I ask you why I never see any Muslim statement in the media that condemns Islamic murder and terrorism? Don’t ‘moderate’ Muslims feel shocked by the carnage? Or are they scared that they will be seen as ‘bad’ Muslims and fear for their lives? I genuinely would like to know this, because I would be the first to condemn any Jewish or Israeli atrocity. When the Fogel family were brutally murdered by Palestinians, where was the outcry and shame expressed by any Muslim? This is what we find very hard. That and the Palestinian culture of celebrating when Jews and Westerners are hurt or killed. For me, those actions are barbaric – both the murders and the celebrating. Savages!
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Josephine Bacon
8:59 am
Oct 12, 2012
To deny that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel is an act of blatant antisemitism. Jerusalem is central to Jewish religion and culture and ONLY to Jewish religion and culture. It does not have this status in any other religion, not even Christianity. In fact, Christianity has attempted throughout its existence to reject Jerusalem in favour of Rome. The only city that could possibly be the capital of a Jewish state is Jerusalem. For the Guardian to try and weasel its way out by claiming that Tel Aviv is the “diplomatic capital” is simply because of all the other countries who under Moslem pressure refused to have embassies in Jerusalem. Where is Israel’s seat of government, the Knesset?
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ruth cohen
9:52 am
Oct 13, 2012
shalom josephine
to deny our holy city is also insanity and total madness. as an israeli born here in this blessed land and living today in holy jerusalem, let me assure you that jerusalem is ours forever.
it makes no difference what men say and think, how important they think they are , hashem is in the heavens as it is written in psalms 2, and laughing at the nations for their foolishness.
it amazes me how i get to be in the most talked about city in the entire world that daily is under attack.
jerusalem is in jewish hands and will remain so forever. that is why we are here. guarding our city.from all the lunatics who want it.
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Sylvie Schapira
5:32 pm
Oct 15, 2012
correction, Luciano, Washington is not the capital of England; Londonistan is!
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luciano tanto
6:12 pm
Oct 15, 2012
dear sylvie: wright. but, londonistan is the religious capital, and washington the political and economic one.
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