As Israel suffered from a severe outbreak of coronavirus over the summer, it became increasingly obvious that a second national lockdown would be implemented to curb the spread. Whereas citizens attending political protests were originally given an exemption from restrictions, and allowed to travel freely to join demonstrations many miles away, when the infection and casualty rate continued to rise, eventually legislation was passed limiting protesters to travel only within the permitted kilometer (3,300 feet) radius from their homes to attend demonstrations.
These are the facts — and the Israeli media accurately reported them as events unfolded. So it’s quite hard to understand how a Washington Post piece could claim that Israel had “implemented a ban on protests” when this patently was not the case. It’s easier to understand when one considers the source — Mairav Zonszein, an uber-critical activist-journalist with a history of alleging that Israel ‘silences dissent.’
As outlined above, this is quite untrue. Israel has not banned protests. It has restricted them. There is a difference — and journalists should not conflate the two. The policy has been enacted by many other countries around the world, including France, Australia and Sweden.
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After being alerted to the grave misinformation by our friends at Israellycool, HonestReporting debunked the claim on Twitter, making sure to tag both the Washington Post and Zonszein. We made sure to let them know that the claim was false, and that protests were restricted, not banned altogether.
False, @washingtonpost @MairavZ – Israel has restricted protests, not banned them altogether. So have other countries, such as France and Sweden.
Such obvious misinformation has no place in a respectable news outlet. pic.twitter.com/vmmRUUrrC5
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) October 4, 2020
We followed up on that original tweet by including a graphic indicating the dozens of demonstrations occurring around Israel that gave the lie to the unfounded claim that there was a ‘ban’ on protests.
As @EylonALevy wrote:
"Protests against Netanyahu tonight, under the 1km rule. As the Hebrew Bible would put it: "From Dan to Beersheba." Source: https://t.co/zrwK9KmwSV"
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) October 4, 2020
Within hours, the article was revised to read as follows: “No other country in the world has so heavily restricted protests…”
A clarification was also added to the article:
An earlier version of this article called the restrictions on protests a ban. While the order does effectively ban large centralized protests, the article has been updated to clarify the nature of the restrictions.”
Much as the Washington Post may try to justify its earlier claim that protests are banned, its readers now know the truth.
