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The Times and “Occupied Arab Land”

Writing on the breakdown of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, The Times (subscription-only) includes the following paragraph in its report: The reference to “occupied Arab land” is inaccurate and prejudicial, implying that there is no Jewish historical or…

Simon Plosker
April 3, 2014
12:00 am

Reading time: < 1 minutes

Writing on the breakdown of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, The Times (subscription-only) includes the following paragraph in its report:

The reference to “occupied Arab land” is inaccurate and prejudicial, implying that there is no Jewish historical or legal claim to those areas. While the correct terminology would be “disputed territories,” Catherine Philp’s description goes beyond other common (and inaccurate) terms that the media regularly use to describe the area of the West Bank / Judea and Samaria.

Within the context of the paragraph itself, it is nigh impossible that Israel would have referred to “occupied Arab land” in any statement it would have released.

HonestReporting has written to The Times and Catherine Philp requesting more neutral and objective terminology. Watch this space.

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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.

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