Ha’aretz Apartheid Clarification: Too Little, Too Late
October 29, 2012 14:22 by Simon Plosker
Ha’aretz: where’s the accountability?
Last week, Gideon Levy, the radical left-wing Ha’aretz commentator, took the results of a poll and promoted the canard that most Israeli Jews would support an apartheid regime in Israel.
We weren’t the only ones to notice that Levy’s analysis of the survey did not measure up to the actual results, instead representing a slander against Israel and Israelis.
Gideon Levy must go.
Even Ha’aretz has recognized that Levy misrepresented the facts, adding the following to the original English online article, which also appears in the Hebrew print edition:
CLARIFICATION: The original headline for this piece, ‘Most Israelis support an apartheid regime in Israel,’ did not accurately reflect the findings of the Dialog poll. The question to which most respondents answered in the negative did not relate to the current situation, but to a hypothetical situation in the future: ‘If Israel annexes territories in Judea and Samaria, should 2.5 million Palestinians be given the right to vote for the Knesset?’
The misleading headline has also been changed to “Survey: Most Israeli Jews wouldn’t give Palestinians vote if West Bank was annexed”.
Hardly a correction or an apology. Perhaps to soften the blow, Ha’aretz published an opinion piece by Yehuda Ben Meir who came to quite different conclusions to Levy, stating that Levy’s article “does an injustice to the State of Israel, the Jewish people and the truth.”
But what of Gideon Levy himself? While acknowledging an error, he appears to be utterly unrepentant, writing a follow up piece in Ha’aretz:
This article is meant to fix a few mistakes. They shouldn’t have happened; we must acknowledge them, apologize for them and fix them. They were not made intentionally, but as a result of neglect due to time pressure. Now is the time to make things right.
Instead of making things right, however, Levy claims that the errors were negligible and goes on to attack those who called him out:
In my analysis of the survey… there was a single sentence that did not accurately represent the poll results and contradicted what I had written in the news piece a short time beforehand.
. . .
The routine excoriation took off. The mirror reflects an unsightly image? Let’s smash it. The messenger stumbles? Let’s slander him, and to hell with everything else described in his article, even discounting the mistake. This is what propagandists always do. One particularly pathetic one has built an entire career out of ridiculously rummaging through negligible errors. Instead of anger being directed toward the findings of the survey – which is what should have caused a scandal – many readers and commentators focused on the unfortunate mistakes that were made.
. . .
They [the right wing] are interested solely in an unfortunate mistake that barely changed anything.
In one breath, Levy states that there were a “few mistakes” and in another, claims that only a single sentence was incorrect. Which is it?
And just who is the propagandist and who has been slandered? Levy is only too happy to promote the canard of Israel as an apartheid state, even going as far as to help some of the most vicious anti-Zionist activists to serve his cause. The only slander that has been committed is Levy’s against the State of Israel.
In most organizations and businesses, a major error that causes immense damage results in those responsible being held responsible and perhaps even heads rolling. But not at Ha’aretz. This time, Gideon Levy has gone too far and must be held accountable. It cannot be business as usual at Ha’aretz. This story was reproduced around the world causing immense damage to Israel’s already fragile image.
Click here to see how this story was reporting in the foreign media
Gideon Levy must go. It is time for Ha’aretz to take the appropriate action and remove him from the paper’s roster of journalists. In addition, the editor of Ha’aretz should be held accountable for allowing such skewed and incorrect reporting to appear with such negligent oversight.
Please register your complaints with Ha’aretz through its online contact form.
Hello
6:01 am
Oct 30, 2012
To all of you:
Want to make a difference?
You can do it, in just 5 or 10 minutes.
Don’t just complain about dishonest hatemonger Gideon Levy and how disgusting Haaretz is for publishing stuff like this.
We all have to actively INVESTIGATE which other reporters and which other media outlets actually quote Gideon Levy and Haaretz as a source. Simply do twitter searches (search for “all” not just “top results) and Google News searches, and send messages at reporters showing honestreporting and camera explanations as to how Levy is evil and why they should never trust or quote Haaretz.
Do this, REGULARLY! It’s easy and IMPORTANT.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
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David
7:22 am
Oct 30, 2012
While we must respect what Mr Gidon Levy had to say, I ask him why is he living in Israel ? His ultra radical left wing comments are Are just as
bad ad the ultra Right wing racists. He is actually
creating reverse racism against Jews and Israel!
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
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rami de lieme
6:24 pm
Nov 05, 2012
Gideon Levy is living in the chique neighbourhood of Sheinkin street without any Arab neighbours
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martin
2:10 pm
Oct 30, 2012
With respects to the above. There are a number of various NGO’s all left wing organisations in Israel, which have the sole intention of discrediting Israel in any and all manners possible.
I am unsure whether the Naturei Karta can be called left or not. But they are nutters in any case. No we are communicating about these organisations which are funded by the EU, seperate countries and their own NGOs, various UN sections and even possibly from Arab states.
The sooner these organisations are ordered to open their accounts and show where their funding comes from the better. Of course, some funding might come from a mailbox only to disguise/hide the original contributor.
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martin
2:15 pm
Oct 30, 2012
As a democracy, Israel has no choice but to allow these farleft Jew hating Jews remain in Israel. Except when they travel to Lebanon etc, or if they are caught and placed on trial for treason. There again, many argue that Peres, Beilin etc all architects should have been placed on trial for at least direct communicating with the enemy when it was illegal.
It is time for the tuth to be out and open to scrutiny.
Just look at those Israelis who were involved in Oslo and their Communist Norwegian “friends”, many of whom have called for the dissolutuion of Israel to be replaced with a secular democratic state of Palestine. And our “brass” actually met with them?? Disgraceful treachoury.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
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Ken
3:52 pm
Oct 30, 2012
Here’s a just move for Israel: Annex Judea and Samaria to complete the restored homeland of the Jews. Transfer them all to any Arab countries, then they won’t need the right to vote in Israel. They’ve invaded Israel over a hundred years ago and belong to the neighboring Arab countries, from which they were brought by the Turks and the British.
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Hurricane Sandy’s Ripple Effects on Israel | Blogs about Israel aggregation
5:44 pm
Oct 30, 2012
[...] • After Gideon Levy’s apartheid survey slander, it’s time for him to go: Haaretz’s “clarification” is too little too late. [...]
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avraham
7:16 pm
Oct 30, 2012
there is not anyone hating and damaging israeli image than gideon levi. if this country would act as the USA he would be in jail from long ago.
bottom line – who loves israel (haaretz) does not read or buy the haaretz!!!!
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Gideon Levy, gli antisionisti ti ringraziano! « Bugie dalle gambe lunghe
7:38 pm
Oct 31, 2012
[...] Articolo originale qui [...]
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Palestinian Refugee Brigade Joins Syrian Rebels | Blogs about Israel aggregation
8:09 pm
Oct 31, 2012
[...] • The Times of Israel takes an impressively in-depth look at Haaretz’s discredited apartheid survey. [...]
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Die Wahrheit noch mehr verdrehen: Haaretz und IDF-Untersuchungen bei Soldaten « Medien BackSpin
10:32 pm
Nov 02, 2012
[...] Zeit nach Aufdeckung des unprofessionell und unethischen Stücks Journalismus von Haaretz, das in verfälschender Weise die Ergebnisse einer Umfrage als Beleg für israelische Apartheid uminterpretierte, schrieb [...]
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Korrektur nach Haaretz –Art « Medien BackSpin
2:57 pm
Nov 06, 2012
[...] muss der Globe & Mail Rezept dafür zollen, dass sie die “Klarstellung” von Haaretz zu deren hässlicher Apartheid-Umfrage aufgegriffen hat. Meines Wissens ist [...]
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Ed Frias
10:58 pm
Nov 08, 2012
Good article which shows in detail the hatred Gideon Levy has for Jews.
Read the comment sections after the article.
They show what a nutjob and an Arab terrorist apologist Levy is.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/161851#.UJwcYofAedJ
Gideon Levi: I Hate ‘Settlers,’ and I’m Proud of It
Veteran Ha’aretz editor Gideon Levi talked about his feelings about the Jews of Judea and Samaria. Bottom line: Levi hates them.
David Lev
11/8/2012
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Dany
7:43 am
Nov 09, 2012
I pity empty souls like Gideon Levy, his obsession with settlers hate shows all over his façade, he should consult a psychiatrist, it could have been a case of a terrible childhood, failures at school, lack of proper friendships, etc.. etc.. etc.
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Ed Frias
3:23 pm
Nov 09, 2012
When the Fogel massacre happened last year and Levy knew it was Palestinians who committed the massacre, Levy reported about the Japan Earthquake instead.
We all know this was diversion to the atrocities the Palestinians committed at Itamar.
As post number 23 said, Gideon Is writing about Japan an excuse to avoid writing about the murder of Israeli children who are the victims you should be talking about
By zionist forever 14 Mar 2011
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/japan-a-nation-of-calm-amid-a-flurry-of-catastrophes-1.349020
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martin
7:59 pm
Nov 09, 2012
Thanks for the above Ed. This man is another Jew hating Jew. His Jewishness means nothing to him, as a communist, he follows in the traditions of all the other communist Jews. Marx, is the perfect example. Of course, the newspaper itself is trying to buildup its readership by employing such nonsense.
The reverse is happening. I never look ar HaAretz, as I share none of its Israel hating dogma. Another reason why its readership continues to plummet. Just look at Ma ariv today!
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In Globe and Mail Today: HRC Comments on Israeli Newspaper Haaretz’s “Clarification” on a Controversial Poll Story | Honest Reporting
9:23 pm
Nov 23, 2012
[...] much pressure and deserved scrutiny by our international affiliate HonestReporting.com, other pro-Israel organizations, [...]
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2012 Dishonest Reporting Awards | The Conservative Papers
1:32 pm
Dec 18, 2012
[...] an outcry over the article, Haaretz was forced to issue a clarification stating that the original headline did not accurately reflect the findings of the poll and amended [...]
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South African
12:21 am
Feb 17, 2013
Mandela from south africa was known as a terrorist .All blacks in south africa were known as terrorist.As a south african we were brain washed by the white government that blacks were terrorist. Mandela sacrificed his whole life for a peace full change in south africa.
Mandela’s freedom, set free society at whole .He sat with his oppressors and negotiated a better life for the whole off south africa .
Gideon Levy loves his jewish family and friends ,He wants to set them free by listening to the other side and creating long term peace, harmony and justice amongs humanity.Gideon sees,what the average jewish citizen does not understand .love unconditionally + justice +fairness,love,love,
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