With your support we continue to ensure media accuracy

Did They Stay or Did They Go?

An article on Christian Arabs in The Economist begins with the following: While Israel’s 1.4m Muslim citizens vociferously champ for the right to return to the lands they fled in 1948, when Israel was created……

Simon Plosker
June 9, 2013
12:00 am

Reading time: < 1 minutes

An article on Christian Arabs in The Economist begins with the following:

While Israel’s 1.4m Muslim citizens vociferously champ for the right to return to the lands they fled in 1948, when Israel was created…

Evidently someone at The Economist must be confused. For starters, 1.4 million Muslims did not flee Israel in 1948 (the number was half that) and if they had, they would not be citizens as The Economist described them.

And even then, today’s Arab Israelis are living as full citizens in mixed cities such as Haifa, Akko and Jaffa as well as their own villages in the Galilee region and Bedouin settlements in the Negev to name but a few. They certainly aren’t “vociferously champing” for a right of return.

It’s these sorts of supposedly minor errors that add up to the historical distortion of events in the region. Time The Economist checked its figures.

The Financial Times Distorts Reality to Paint Israel as Aggressor in Lebanon

▶ How Palestinian Children Are Taught To Worship Death

Pseudo-Journalism: CNN’s Non-Story Demonizes Israel

How CBS News Is Facing A Crisis of Its Own Making

▶ The Iranian Regime at the UN Security Council: When the Perpetrator Plays the Victim

Simon Plosker

With over two decades of experience in various non-governmental organizations in the UK and Israel, Simon Plosker returned to HonestReporting in October 2022 as Editorial Director having previously been part of the organization’s management team from 2005 to 2020. Prior to his first spell at HonestReporting, Simon worked in Israel for NGO Monitor, BICOM, and served for a short period in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit. He was Managing Editor of the Geneva-based NGO United Nations Watch for two years before moving back to the frontline defending Israel from media bias. Simon has a BSoc.Sc in International Studies and Political Science from the University of Birmingham and an MSc in History of International Relations from the London School of Economics. He immigrated to Israel in 2001 from London.

HonestReporting is a USA non-profit 501(c)(3) charitable organization as recognized by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Tax ID# 06-1611859. Your generous tax-deductible donations make a real difference.