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.
Elliot
1:08 pm
Aug 08, 2012
The uber left truly are the Nu fascists. They deny every abuse going on all over the Muslim Arab world, the racism the hate the apartheid the homophobia and misogyny and non democracy yet focus their exclusive gaze on the true light to the nations, Israel. A shining beacon in a cess pit of bile
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Bonnie Prince Charlie
3:33 pm
Aug 08, 2012
But The Guardian is itself a cesspit of bile!!!!
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Victor
4:24 pm
Aug 08, 2012
The G******* is a nasty anti-Semitic rag which is akin to Beobachter in Hitler’s 1930s.
Having never bought a copy in in life ever I had a wonderful cathartic moment about 6 months ago and deleted them from my FREE browser.
The G******* has permanently been close to bankruptcy for years and is only supported by the Scott trust and cash from Auto Trader. Over the last 2 financial years they lost close to 200,000,000 quid and thousands of readers.
Work it out for yourself…..the bailiffs are hovering as even the long suffering Scott family Trust are now pissed off. When you go to sleep tonight jst think of PT(how suitable) in a dole queue outside the BBC offices in Manchester.
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Asher Garber
1:33 pm
Aug 08, 2012
I think part of the definition of Fascism is rampant nationalism which is what you get when moving to the far end of the Right. But whatever. Call the Guardian a Leftist newspaper if it makes you feel better about yourself. I support Israel and her socialist medical practices (for example).
Israel, the one country in the world with more trees now than 50 years ago.
Israel, multicultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religion, equality of the sexes and freedom of sexual choice.
Israel, a real stick in the eye for nationalists in the Arabian peninsula and neo-Nazis in America.
Israel: She’s a Liberal cause.
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Peter
2:48 pm
Aug 08, 2012
Job well done HR! Keep up the GREAT work!
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lex
2:51 pm
Aug 08, 2012
But what’s in their hearts is hatred.
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angelo
2:57 pm
Aug 08, 2012
Bravi.Bravissimi….it’s italian but nonetheless you do not need a translation for it.
Keep tracking them and anybody else on the same line. The most active defense
can , sometimes , be offense
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Josephine Bacon
2:57 pm
Aug 08, 2012
Well done! Now let’s move on to even greater things. The way in which the international judicial authorities have treated the blatant invasion by Turkey of Northern Cyprus in 1973 is totally different to all the furore about Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. It is time to make the comparison and show that there is blatant discrimination against Israel which has a certain measure of right to those territories (Palestine Mandate, etc.) and Turkey which has none. I know something about the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, I was living there under the threat and got out just in time.
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Alan Miller
3:39 pm
Aug 08, 2012
Josephine, If you were there (Cyprus) at the time you will remember Archbishop Makarios and his demands for ‘Enosis’ ie union with Greece. This was a threat to the Turkish minority in Cyprus. The ‘invasion’ of Northern Cyprus was a direct reaction to that threat. Subsequently the Turkish North voted for re-union and it was the Greeks of the south who rejected the proposal.
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jeb stuart
3:02 pm
Aug 08, 2012
I disagree with Asher about “National” socialists being just an extreme manifestation of the “right”. Hitler was a Socialist party member and union activist before leading the National Socialist party. Stalin, Mao even what came after Ho Chi Minh are hardly Right wing manisfestations of facism. Vietnam the liberal left declared exorcised with the exit of the USA and the “Puppet Governemnt” since then 1 million people died fleeing Commie Vietnam after Saigon fell. Genocdie against the Montagnard and Hmong is still practiced to include sterilization of tribal women. 100 Christian activists were murdered in Vietnam last year . The left inspires tyranny the blind notion it is the right? BS
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tom
3:04 pm
Aug 08, 2012
Sad thing is , their apology or retraction will be a tiney snippet stuck in the bottom corner of some obscure page, they are blatant liars and have once again beeen exposed.
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Richard Galber
3:04 pm
Aug 08, 2012
A brilliant result
It just shows how successful it can be when some effort is applied
The Guardian and its running mates have had it all their own way for to long , and it’s good to see the results of the fight back
Congratulations
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Ben
3:06 pm
Aug 08, 2012
Well done HR! You are the first line of defence against the worlds greatest evil.
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David El EIni
3:06 pm
Aug 08, 2012
Great job HR. It goes to show that perseverence against blatant anti Israel propaganda pays
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ardon lyon
3:10 pm
Aug 08, 2012
Very well done. Many of us in the UK are completely sick of The Guardian’s disgraceful anti-Israel bias, which is particularly regrettable since a good many people here who are middle of the road politically would find it hard to believe that they are biassed in this way.
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Josephine Bacon
3:21 pm
Aug 08, 2012
The so-called “Independent” is even worse! It pretends to be totally neutral on everything, so it is – except on Israel!
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Mahmoud ex-Moslem
3:13 pm
Aug 08, 2012
Seemingly British are ignorant about Jerusalem, just like Moslems. Listen to the only guy who is ready to tell Moslems the truth about Jerusalem in their language and on their Jihadi channel, al-Jazeera.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHpMhAzj-Tk
He is SOOOOOOOO right!!! it is time that he and HonestReporting say the truth.
HR, continue!!!
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Scott
3:20 pm
Aug 08, 2012
This was a very silly childish game anyway. I mean for goodness sakes – what a nonsense! All these morons have done is clearly demonstrate – without a shadow of doubt – how they abuse the positions they undeservedly hold. They are unfit to report anything. We’re not interested in their stupid propaganda.
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Josephine Bacon
3:26 pm
Aug 08, 2012
David Goldberg of Israel Legal Advocacy just posted this:
Re Jerusalem: Guardian has changed its style guide (a la BBC) apparently under threat of legal action by HonestReporting against PCC (advised by Asserson).
Change is from statement that “…TelAviv is capital.” Guide now reads
“Jerusalem:
should not be referred to as the capital of Israel: it is not recognised as such by the international community. While the Knesset has designated the city as the country’s capital, a UN resolution of 1980 declared this status “null and void”. Jerusalem is the seat of government and Tel Aviv is the country’s diplomatic and financial centre”.
So not such a victory after all.
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Scott
3:34 pm
Aug 08, 2012
Yes, Josephine – they continue to play their silly little semantic games, but even morons like them and others understand that “the seat of government” entails the site of a nation’s capital.
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steve mann
3:35 pm
Aug 08, 2012
What do you expect from the UN-
out of 199 nations within it- 57 are Islamic- Now if you are trying to say that the pressure used by these nations is not having an effect on all things concerning Israel- then the “Tint” on your “Rose Coloured Glasses” has just gone crazy paved!
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Steve Apfel
3:27 pm
Aug 08, 2012
Kol Hakavod to HR.Com! These media entities will come to respect ‘Jews with a sting.’
I have taken the Cape Times to the SA Human Rights Commission for racial prejudice.
keep it up
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Henry Federman
3:32 pm
Aug 08, 2012
They admitted that they were wrong on writing that Tel Aviv was not the capital of Israel but did they say that Jerusalem was or were the word too hard to admit and got chocked in their throat?
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Lawrence Zingesser
3:37 pm
Aug 08, 2012
The Guardian is losing money by the bucketful…around a million pounds a week.
How do they manage to keep going? Who is behind the “Scott Trust,” that founded this rag?
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Victor
4:43 pm
Aug 08, 2012
Scott is the family name of the original founders of thew Manchester Guardian. They, along with Auto Trader a very profitable mag. have kept this rag afloat for years. Google Scott Trust etc….
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Annat
3:38 pm
Aug 08, 2012
good work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Bettathanavalium
3:42 pm
Aug 08, 2012
Good work . Now please please take on the BBC and get them to publish the Balen Report
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