UPDATE
The Jerusalem Post fact-checked Tablet and Reuters on whether or not the Palestinians have Olympic-sized swimming pools by sending reporters to the West Bank to get a first-hand look. Highlighting a problem with Palestinian sources, the Post writes:
All claimed to be the “largest in the West Bank.” All claimed to be used regularly by the Palestinian swimming federation for competitions. And all claimed to be of Olympic size. The pool at the Murad Resort, for example, is 25 meters in length, 12.5 m. in width and ranges between 1 m. and 3.5 m. in depth. It also costs NIS 40 to use . . .
But while these pools claim to be Olympic sized, are they? That is where it gets complicated. Reuters was right in its report that there are no 50-m. pools in the West Bank. The Palestinian Olympics Committee told us that it is planning on breaking ground for one in the near future and has already decided to name it for Sepp Blatter, the head of FIFA and a friend of Jibril Rajoub, the Fatah official in charge of the Palestinian Olympics Committee.
But there are clearly several 25-m. pools in the West Bank. They are what are known as half-Olympic-sized pools. And while many professionals train in 25-m. pools around the world – even in the United States – they are not used in the Olympics or world championships. In addition, length is only one of the criteria by which to determine whether a pool is Olympic standard. There is the width, the depth, the amount of water, the width of the lanes, the number of lanes, the use of touch panels on the walls and even the water temperature.
Three take-aways:
1. Liebovitz needed to be more careful in his reliance on the Palestinian websites he linked to.
2. There aren’t any 50 meter-length Olympic-sized pools in the West Bank.
3. I still have a bone to pick with Reuters’ due diligence. Reuters failed to source the assertion that there are no regulation-sized pools, then forced another newspaper to do the independent verification. Moreover, Tablet and the JPost filled in important nuance that Reuters missed — namely that it’s not unusual for swimmers to train in 25-meter pools, and that there’s no record of Mary al-Atrash ever applying for permission to practice in larger pools in Jerusalem.
Is there an Olympic-sized pool in the West Bank? @adamrasgon1 and I went to see. Here is what we found. https://t.co/LTciHI6QSf
— Yaakov Katz (@yaakovkatz) August 10, 2016
I’ll give the last word on the matter to the JPost’s concluding thought:
But here is one point that everyone needs to remember and that unfortunately has been overlooked. Whether there is an Olympic-sized pool in the West Bank or not, in this case it has nothing to do with Israel or the so-called occupation. The Palestinians control large parts of the West Bank and can just build one.
* * *
One thing I vividly remember about summer camp were occasional chicken fights in the swimming pool. Two teams — light, wiry boys sitting on the shoulders of heavier boys — trying to knock each other into the water without falling down themselves. I enjoyed watching the spectacle.
It’s a great metaphor for the latest fight making some waves on Twitter. The Jerusalem Post and activists are duking it out with Reuters bureau chief Luke Baker over fact-checking. But I’m not enjoying the spectacle.
The heart of the issue? A snippet from a recent Reuters dispatch by reporter Mustafa Abu Ganeyeh about about a Palestinian swimmer, Mary al-Atrash, competing in the Rio Olympics:
The 22-year-old university graduate’s preparations have been hampered because she does not have an Olympic-sized pool to train in. There are none in the Palestinian territories and she has to settle for a 25-meter pool. . .
Use of superior Israeli facilities and training partners in nearby Jerusalem where there are several Olympic-sized pools and many swimmers, has not been possible due to the long-standing conflict with Israel.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
Here’s the anatomy of the chicken fight:
A) Reuters reports Palestinians have no Olympic-sized swimming pools to train in.
B) Liel Leibovitz points out in Tablet the existence of regulation-size pools in the West Bank and Gaza. Leibovitz also cites an Israeli statement that Atrash never applied for a permit to train in Jerusalem.
There’s this luxurious one in Gaza, built, maybe, with some of the leftover cement Hamas could spare after squandering billions on its terror tunnels; there’s one in Nablus; and when I called the folks over at the Murad resort in al-Atrash’s native Beit Sakhour, they assured me that their pool, too, was properly Olympically endowed. Water, water everywhere, then, and not a drop for swimming.
C) The Jerusalem Post picks up on Tablet.
D) Baker took to Twitter to dispute the JPost and other activists. Here‘s one of several threads of the back and forth.
The claim that Palestinians have no regulation-sized pools was stated factually in Reuters’ own voice. This implies that the wire service is 100 percent certain that this is the truth. In cases of doubt, responsible journalists cover their backsides by attributing the assertion to a named individual or to relevant “officials” who in this case would have been “Palestinian sporting officials.”
But the wire service took no such measure, exposing itself like the hapless kid whose trunks come off while diving headfirst into the water.
Questioned by Twitterati, Baker seemed to attribute the assertion to Fawaz Zaloum, the head of the Palestinian swimming committee. (Zaloum’s name appeared nowhere in the original article.)
https://twitter.com/LukeReuters/status/762616118565535744
And neither Reuters nor Baker acknowledged the possibility that the Palestinian Authority could build swimming pools if it wanted to, as the Jerusalem Post’s chief editor, Yaakov Katz pointed out in a cannonball tweet.
As far as Baker’s concerned, there are no Olympic swimming pools in Palestine. It’s indisputable. Period.
https://twitter.com/LukeReuters/status/762714892466085888
This is the same Luke Baker who earlier this told a Knesset sub-committee that there is no media bias against Israel, and in a written submission, even cited HonestReporting by name in his defense. Not long after this episode of what I’ll call “HonestReportingWashing,” Baker called HR a “pressure group” whose work is laughable and one-sided. Talk about having it both ways.
Dodging questions about how the journalism was carried out is poor behavior and shows a lack of expected transparency.
What’s the point of Luke Baker representing Reuters on Twitter if he can’t satisfactorily explain his company’s methodology?
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