COMMITTEE FOR ACCURACY IN MIDDLE EAST REPORTING AND ANALYSIS
Narrowing down an entire year of Guardian anti-Israel reporting on Israel to the seven most egregious examples is not an easy task, but, as a public service to our loyal readers, here are a few errors and lies by their contributors and reporters in 2017 which especially stand out:
We contacted The Economist over a claim that a controversial book (featuring a Jewish-Palestinian romance) by an Israeli writer was “removed” from the school curriculum, and editors ultimately upheld our complaint.
In fact, the suggestion that the country is moving to the far right couldn’t be further from the truth. Despite a few bills of questionable merit which many on the left here disagree with, and which have little actual impact, fundamentally Israel remains – as the respected human rights group Freedom House reports each year – a bastion of liberal, democratic values.
Israelis are free go to bookshops anywhere in the country and purchase the book, Borderlife, by Dorit Rabinyan. The book made it to the Israeli best seller’s list. Israeli students can borrow the book from libraries. Israeli teachers in advanced literature classes across the country are free to assign the book to their students if they choose. Yet, the Guardian somehow claimed that the book was “censored” by Israel.
Readers may recall that in late 2015 and early 2016, various BBC radio programmes misled their audiences by promoting assorted versions of the inaccurate…
Back in July the BBC’s Editorial Complaints Unit upheld a complaint submitted by BBC Watch which had previously been twice rejected by the corporation’s…
As readers may recall, since late last year various BBC radio programmes have misled their audiences by promoting assorted versions of the inaccurate claim…
Readers may recall that back in February, listeners to BBC Radio 4’s culture show ‘Front Row’ were inaccurately informed that: “…recently the [Israeli] culture…
Between December 31st 2015 and February 22nd 2016, assorted BBC platforms produced five separate reports or programmes which falsely described a certain book as…
No, the Guardian didn’t accuse Israel of drifting into fascism as such. However, in contextualizing a few isolated pieces of legislation – blown out of proportion by Israel’s critics – within the broad Guardian lens of ‘a country moving dangerously to the right’, and featuring the word ‘fascism’ prominently within this framing, they once again amplified an intellectually unserious smear that doesn’t withstand even the most rudimentary critical scrutiny.