On July 31, we posted about a false claim, in a caption beneath an EPA photo published at The Observer (sister publication of the Guardian), that most Israeli immigrants (Olim) move to “settlements in the West Bank”. (‘Observer’s top 20 photographs of the Week, July 31.)
Here’s the photo and original caption:
In our post we demonstrated (per information we obtained from the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics) that, contrary to the Observer/EPA claim, only a small percentage of new immigrants to Israel move to “settlements in the West Bank”, and then contacted Observer editors to seek a correction.
Per our communication with The Observer’s Readers’ Editor, EPA Photo Agency researched the matter and promptly issued the following the correction:
Attention editors, on July 23rd, 2013 we moved a set of images showing immigrants arriving from New York to Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv. We have been made aware of that the part of our caption saying ‘… New immigrants predominately move to Israeli settlements in the West Bank,..’ is wrong and is not supported by figures of the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics that we have received.
We apologize for any inconveniences EPA/OLIVER WEIKEN
Following the EPA retraction, The Observer followed suit, and amended their caption accordingly. Here’s the caption now:
We commend EPA and The Observer for their prompt response to our complaint.
Related articles
- CiF contributor Antony Loewenstein promotes lie about ‘Jews only roads’ (cifwatch.com)
- CiF Watch prompts correction to Guardian claim on Gaza construction material (cifwatch.com)
- CiF Watch prompts improved language to Indy description of Israel’s security fence (cifwatch.com)
- Mad, bad and dangerous: BBC stereotypes half a million Israelis (bbcwatch.org)
