There should not be a comma after the word rare. The comma creates the false impression that the “arrest operations” themselves are rare. As you are well-aware, that is not true. This raid is rare only insofar as it was carried out during the day. As such, the sentence should instead read “… in a rare daytime arrest operation…” without the original comma. In the AP’s past reporting, Israeli arrest raids are described as “regular,” which is indisputably the case. I believe this is ultimately a mistake related to the difference between coordinate and cumulative adjectives.
*CORRECTION MADE*
The Associated Press changed the sentence in subsequent updates to the article to remedy the misplaced comma.
February 22, 2023
Dear Mr. Vincent and those at the Associated Press,
I’m writing on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME, https://www.cjpme.org) to alert you to a factual error in your highly syndicated article on the recent Israeli military raid on the city of Nablus, published February 22, 2023.
The sentence in question reads:
“Israeli troops on Wednesday entered a major Palestinian city in the occupied West Bank in a rare, daytime arrest operation, triggering fighting that killed at least 10 Palestinians and wounded scores of others.”
There should not be a comma after the word rare. The comma creates the false impression that the “arrest operations” themselves are rare. As you are well-aware, that is not true. This raid is rare only insofar as it was carried out during the day. As such, the sentence should instead read “… in a rare daytime arrest operation…” without the original comma. In the AP’s past reporting, Israeli arrest raids are described as “regular,” which is indisputably the case.[1] I believe this is ultimately a mistake related to the difference between coordinate and cumulative adjectives.
Given how popular this article is, it has led to an enormous amount of poor reporting across Canada alone, with other media outlets claiming incorrectly that these raids are “rare”, rather than referencing their daytime nature being the rarity, which is likely a part of why this raid in particular was so deadly. Far more important than whether daytime raids are “rare” is the context that nighttime raids are regular and that a similar deadly event occurred in Jenin less than a month ago.
I am aware that later in your article this is clarified, when it says that “the Israeli army usually carries out its operations at night,” but the initial error is what is regularly being quoted or paraphrased.
I insist that you make a rapid correction and place an editor’s note to help dispel some of the damage which has already been done. Many people today will have been given the false impression that this was a rare event, rather than a regular, deadly Israeli military tactic that has led to the deaths and injuries of numerous Palestinians in the West Bank this year.
Respectfully,
Jason Toney
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East
[1] https://apnews.com/article/politics-israel-government-palestinian-territories-west-bank-68f7590fe86ca7dc7b37e5775e41d711