Under the headline “Security tight as Israelis mark 1967 capture of east Jerusalem,” the French wire service AFP published an article that misleads by leaving out critical historical context about Jerusalem:
Israeli police deployed in large numbers in Jerusalem on Sunday for an annual march marking the country’s 1967 seizure of the Palestinian-dominated eastern half of the city.
The original French version of the article, under the headline “Thousands of people celebrate Israel’s conquest of East Jerusalem,” included the following, which we have translated from the French:
The occupation and annexation of East Jerusalem by Israel have been condemned several times by the UN. The Palestinians want to make the oriental part of Jerusalem the capital of the state they aspire to, which the Israeli leaders refuse.
The 49th anniversary of the Six-Day War, during which Israel had seized East Jerusalem, takes place as Palestinian Muslims are about to start Ramadan, the Muslim fast.
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Was Jerusalem a Palestinian city that Israel “conquered” 49 years ago?
No. Jerusalem’s history did not begin 49 years ago. It began 3,000 years ago when King David declared the city his capital. For thousands of years, Jews have been living in the city. In fact, one of the only times when there were no Jewish residents of the Old City is after they were expelled following its fall in 1948 and Jerusalem was divided until 1967.
In 1948, Arab nations invaded the nascent Jewish state. When the war came to an end, the eastern part of Jerusalem, including the Old City, found itself under Jordanian occupation. So when the Israeli forces took control over the Jordanian controlled areas of Jerusalem in 1967, they restored the city’s former unity. There had never been any Palestinian rule over Jerusalem as implied by AFP.
There is another interesting difference in the French and English versions. In the English version, the article at least explains that Israel has a claim to the city and that the issue is controversial:
Palestinians see east Jerusalem as the capital of their future independent state, whereas Israelis see all of Jerusalem as their capital.
The future status of Jerusalem is among the most contentious issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
However, the French version skips the above conclusion and instead just states the Palestinian view:
The Palestinians want to make the oriental part of Jerusalem the capital of the state they aspire to, which the Israeli leaders refuse.
One side wants something, the other side refuses it: Is this balanced reporting? (Read more about imbalanced reporting.)
The agency also insists on the supposed split character of the city by using the term “East Jerusalem” a total of five times. But there is no geographic entity of “East Jerusalem.”
As our video, Jerusalem: The Media Myth of Two Cities explains, there are no distinctions or borders between east and west in the city. Not only that, but we interviewed two Israeli women who had lived in the Old City and were expelled in 1948 when it fell to the Jordanians. Until the city was reunified in 1967, Israelis could only gaze from afar at the homes where they had grown up. So much for the notion that Israel “conquered” a Palestinian city in 1967.
The Palestinians may present the events of 1967 as a conquest. For Israelis, this was the liberation of their capital – in which, as AFP acknowledges, Arabs still live in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City and other places. Using only one narrative does not provide French readers with a proper understanding of the complex situation.
Tell the AFP that the Jewish history of Jerusalem did not begin in 1967. Click here and fill out the AFP contact page. Make sure to check the box that says “contact editorial.”
Featured image: CC BY-NC David Ortmann;
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