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.
Nathan
3:44 pm
Aug 08, 2012
Only half the job done. Now fight for them to acknowledge that Jerusalem IS the capital. Miracles take a long time. Impossibilities take a little longer. Behatzlachah.
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Ted Wagschal
3:59 pm
Aug 08, 2012
1948 or 2012, nothing has changed for the Brits. They neither like Israel nor its capital Jerusalem.
Get used to it, they will not change, nor will Israel change its capital.
In the meantime, good job Honest Reporting!!
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Richard Fryer
4:17 pm
Aug 08, 2012
Be careful Ted. I’m proud to be a Brit, proud to be Jewish and equally proud about loving Israel and its CAPITAL, Jerusalem and I know there are lots more like me.
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Marilyn
6:16 pm
Aug 08, 2012
Me too! Except I am not Jewish. Although a restaurant owner in Netanya told my husband and myself that we had paid so many visits to Israel we could consider ourselves Honorary Jews – does that count?
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Guardian’s Grudging Mea (Not Quite) Culpa Highlights Need for UK Reform
4:30 pm
Aug 08, 2012
[...] reported earlier in the day, our friends at Honest Reporting today issued a press release announcing a major achievement on the subject of the Guardian’s bizarre ‘style guide’ [...]
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Mike
4:31 pm
Aug 08, 2012
Kudos to HR for a job well done. A shame it came at the expense of legal action. KEEP UP THE GOOD FIGHT!!!
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ruth cohen
4:35 pm
Aug 08, 2012
shalom from jerusalem. firstly great job honest reporting. secondly we are here for thousands of years and will always be here. dont know how long the bbc is going to be around though -with their burning hatred for israel. lets see how they will fall down like so many of our enemies.
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mira375
4:39 pm
Aug 08, 2012
Good work by Honest Reporting. The Guardian’s so-called retraction, however, has so many caveats and excuses, it is only barely passable.
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Mark
4:39 pm
Aug 08, 2012
MOST countries have their embassies in Tel Aviv, because it is the largest city in Israel and there has not yet been “international recognition” of Jerusalem as the capital. At least for the United States, legislation was passed requiring the move to have been made “not later than May 31, 1999″, as that was 5 years following the Oslo Accords (and we all know how well THOSE went, yes?) But there was a caveat: US policy has been, and still is, that move would be made ONLY “in conjunction with a final-status peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians”. Since there will likely never be such an agreement, the embassy will remain in Tel Aviv. But… we all know where the capital is.
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Richard Mather
4:40 pm
Aug 08, 2012
Congrats to HR. Let’s hope the Guardian acknowledges Jerusalem is the capital.
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Michael
5:55 pm
Aug 08, 2012
No hope for change Gurdian which was,is and will be pro-Islamic fascists.
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Art Simon
4:43 pm
Aug 08, 2012
Great job Honest Reporting. It is a shame that this has to be done. It amazes me how the Guardian operates, and people believe them.
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Sylvie Schapira
5:01 pm
Aug 08, 2012
Thank goodness that we have an organisation that will stand up for Israel, in Britain. Well done to HR for taking the legal steps against such madness. (What is an accuracy then?) It is shocking and deplorable – and a blatant anti-Israel stand – from both the Guardian and the PCC. They and the PBC (used to be known as the BBC) are overflowing with marxist-Islamic political leanings. The British public is being brainwashed on a daily basis. I can imagine asking someone in the street ‘what is the capital of Israel?’ and having them say ‘Tel Aviv’.
If the only way to challenge all this delegitimization of Israel is to go to law, then we must support Honest Reporting all the way!
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Vera Grifenhagen
5:12 pm
Aug 08, 2012
I have been an avid reader of Honest Reporting since your “day one” and have told so many people about your site. It is wonderful place for all Jews to support one another and especially Israel. It did my heart “good” to see your accomplishment of dealing with the Brits and The Guardian.
Congrats and keep up the good work !!
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David
5:22 pm
Aug 08, 2012
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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Rich L
5:33 pm
Aug 08, 2012
Well done, HR! Too bad that it took legal action to get their attention. Sadly some folks need to feel the heat before they see the light.
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ardon lyon
5:48 pm
Aug 08, 2012
Perhaps the next stage would be to ask TheGuardian (probably with legal backing later on if necessary) that since it now admits that Tel Aviv is not the capital, what city do they claim is the capital, or do they claim that is this a country without one?
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Euclid
5:48 pm
Aug 08, 2012
It is also worth noting that the Guardian has made a massive loss of revenue last year. May it continue until it goes bast; sooner than later.
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Al Sheeber
6:02 pm
Aug 08, 2012
It all stems from the wimps working at the IL Gov press office lacking an enforced a code of conduct prohibiting unethical or dishonest reporting that would have been instantly rebuked, credentials lifted, bureaus closed, correspondents deported and barred for 10 years from entry, the whole story could look differently. The “aparatchnicks” working at the Gov Press Offices, are clueless, unprepared and not that well educated, with no private sector work experience, unable to understand what their job is about, and what the foreign press is trying to do in Israel=destory it!
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Tony Jacobs
10:38 pm
Aug 08, 2012
This is what the Zionist federation and Board of Deputies should be doing to protect Israel and Jews.
Thank you HR, well done and long may you continue.
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HonestReporting Forces Guardian To Retract Claim That Tel Aviv Is Capital Of Israel | Blogs about Israel aggregation
6:04 pm
Aug 08, 2012
[...] HonestReporting Forces Guardian To Retract Claim That Tel Aviv Is Capital Of Israel [...]
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Bill Kelly
7:45 pm
Aug 08, 2012
This is good news, and I am hoping for success on the the legal actions Honest Reporting is doing. The Tel Aviv as Israel’s capital claim would be like insisting that Liverpool is England’s Capital, even though the Parliament is in London. Jerusalem is historically, and always has been Israel’s capital. Since the days of King David, who ruled from there, and now, where the Knesset and the seat of Government is. The insistence on Tel Aviv as the capital, is a symptom of being anti Israel, and also an attempt to classify Israel as only another another nation of this world, and not as a nation brought forth by God, not only for their benefit, but the benefit of all mankind.
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Angela
8:19 pm
Aug 08, 2012
Congratulations…..Now you have the legal weapon to use on people who have no regard to the Law. Obviously they hold one thing sacred…..their bank balance….now you have discovered their weak spot I hope that you keep working on it.
Well done Honest Reporting.
P.S. There is an army of Christians out here who also deeply love and respect Israel and all things Jewish. Some of us may not be too vocal, but oldies like me can be in prayer always for the fulfillment of The Torah Prophesies for our beloved Jewish friends in Israel and around the world.
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Israeli American
8:51 pm
Aug 08, 2012
Here’s an idea: Let’s start a campaign to call Liverpool the capital of Great Britain. What they want to do to us, we should do to them.
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