US Settlement Policy Error in Washington Post

UPDATE

In response to HonestReporting’s communications, the Washington Post has amended the article and replaced the word “illegal” with “illegitimate.” While this is still negative, it is accurate. It is, however, important to make this correction given that many media outlets consistently claim that all settlements are illegal under international law. In fact, while many states do consider settlements to be illegal, Israel stresses that there is more than one interpretation of international law regarding the status of settlements and the disputed territories.

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In an otherwise excellent Washington Post story about neighboring Palestinian villagers visiting the mayor of Efrat’s succah for a holiday celebration, the text includes the following:

In fact, the US government does not consider Jewish settlements to be illegal.  It considers them to be objectionable, calling them “obstacles to peace” and prejudicial to the outcome of final status talks and questions their legitimacy.  It has not, however, called them illegal.

As recently as September, HonestReporting called out the Sunday Telegraph for erroneously stating that the US considers Jewish settlements to be illegal. The Telegraph subsequently amended its article.

Obviously media outlets should be factually accurate but on the issue of settlements, terming them “illegal” has serious implications relating to issues such as the recent US military aid package or how the US relates to its own citizens who live in settlements.

It also goes some way to demonstrate that it is incorrect to simply call all Israeli settlements illegal when there are other interpretations that are equally valid.

We’ve contacted the Washington Post requesting an amendment to its story. Watch this space.