The NY Times’ #Incorrections
▻http://blog.thejerusalemfund.org/2014/01/the-ny-times-incorrections.html
Recently the #New_York_Times published an article about Mohamad Assaf, the young Palestinian star from Gaza who’s vocal talents were recognized throughout the Arab world after winning Arab Idol. In the original text published on December 19th, the following was included:
And the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, included in a message to Secretary of State John Kerry a YouTube video of Mr. Assaf singing longingly about cities in Israel that were once Palestinian. Mr. Netanyahu wrote, “Incitement and peace cannot coexist.”
And....
Mr. Assaf grew up in the Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza, an area that often has shortages of water, gas and electricity because of restrictions imposed by Israel.
Well, on Dec. 31st, the New York Times ran a long correction:
An article on Dec. 19 about Mohammed Assaf, a Palestinian singer from Gaza who has become a star in the Arab world after winning the “Arab Idol” competition, referred incorrectly to cities in Israel Mr. Assaf sings about. While they had largely Arab populations before Israel became a state in 1948, they were not “Palestinian” in the sense of being part of a Palestinian political entity. The article also referred incorrectly to shortages of water, gas and electricity in Gaza. While Israel places restrictions on some goods coming into Gaza, and many Palestinians blame Israel for shortages, they were worsened by Egypt’s closing of smuggling tunnels and by a tax dispute between the militant Hamas faction, which governs Gaza, and the Palestinian Authority. The article also referred incorrectly to Mr. Assaf’s travels to Cairo for “Arab Idol” auditions. The Sinai Desert is part of Egypt; he rode for hours through the Sinai from the border with Egypt, not to the border.
Corrections are supposed to happen in newspapers when they print factually incorrect information or perhaps because of failures in copy editing like typos, misspellings and so on. What seems to have happened here is that someone complained that the New York Times would refer to cities in Palestine as Palestinian. So by making this correction what the New York Times is saying is that prior to Israel, there was no “Palestinian political entity” that these cities were a part of and thus referring to the cities as Palestinian is wrong.
Well, that sure seems like news to the New York Times of yesteryear. Calling cities in Palestine “Palestinian cities” wasn’t a problem for the New York Times 1927 or in 1929 for example. Nor was it odd for the paper that today says those cities were not part of a “Palestinian political entity” to refer regularly to a “Palestine Government.”
It is true that the native population of Palestine during that time did not have self-determination (also, they still don’t today) but does that mean there was no political entity there in Palestine? Yes, Palestine was under a British Mandate then, but does that make Palestine’s cities British? Syria was under French Mandate in the 1920s, does that mean Damascus was a French city? Was it not a Syrian city? Of course these were Syrian cities, and the New York Times reported such at the time.
So why the correction when it comes to Palestinian cities? Its clear here that the editors chose to appease what was likely a disgruntled pro-Israel reader who was displeased at the very notion that the New York Times might mention a historical reality they reported on at the time today when a Zionist narrative has made significant strides in altering the discourse.
As far as the correction regarding the siege on Gaza goes, yes, Egypt is playing a role, but to even put it remotely on par with the role Israel is playing in the siege is dishonest. Israel controls all entry and exit ports for commerce in Gaza. They control the ability of Palestinians in Gaza to enter the West Bank. They enforce a naval blockade. Egypt does none of this. It is Israel of course, not Egypt, which confirmed to US officials on “multiple occasions” that “as part of their overall embargo plan against Gaza...they intend to keep the Gazan economy on the brink of collapse without quite pushing it over the edge” and that “they intend to keep the Gazan economy functioning at the lowest level possible consistent with avoiding a humanitarian crisis.”
In the updated version of the Assaf story, the line about the siege has been edited to the following:
Mr. Assaf grew up in the Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza, an area that often has shortages of water, gas and electricity.
No mention of Israel’s role in creating these shortages exists anymore.
Corrections are meant to get a story that was factually wrong right. In this case, the New York Times’ correction only managed to succeed at obfuscation, distortion and probably at appeasing pro-Israel readers at the cost of the truth.