The Media Accountability Project  

CJPME wrote to the Associated Press on March 7 and March 9, 2023, regarding issues with their coverage of Israeli violence in the West Bank. Regarding three of these issues, AP stories were either updated to include accurate information and language, or the feedback was incorporated in later reporting.

1) CJPME took issue with the way that AP described Palestinians killed, which used the qualifier: “around half of them were militants.” CJPME noted that this was inaccurate and misleading, and that such language implied that their deaths were inherently justified. In subsequent AP articles, this language was first changed to "around half of them affiliated with militant groups," and later to simply and more accurately say they were “killed by Israeli fire during military arrest raids and other confrontations so far this year.”

2) The AP had originally described the settler violence in Huwara without mentioning that a Palestinian had been shot and killed, even though they did mention that two Israelis had been killed earlier in the day. After a CJPME complaint, the article was updated to include this information.

3) The AP’s article on March 6 provided an inaccurate number of illegal Israeli settlers, claiming that since 1967, “500,000 Jewish settlers have moved into dozens of settlements.” After complaints from CJPME, subsequent articles have corrected this problem to say that there are “more than 700,000 Jewish settlers.”

"When Israel carries out arrest raids it is often met with Palestinian resistance. However, as The Associated Press itself regularly reports, much of the resistance is typically from unarmed civilians throwing stones or committing other acts of non-violent civil disobedience. Often, innocent civilians are killed during these arrest raids. 15 children have been killed as a result of Israeli military and settler violence this year alone."

In an article focused on Israeli Minister Smotrich’s call to “erase” Hawara and Netanyahu’s response, it is alarming that the description of events leading up is so one-sided. The two Israeli brothers who were killed in the leadup are mentioned, but the Palestinian casualties are omitted. In a story about erasing a town, this is essential information.

On February 27, 2023, the National Post and other outlets published a story by the Associated Press on a pogrom by Israeli settlers against the Palestinian town of Huwara in the occupied West Bank. However, while the deaths of three Israelis killed by Palestinians before and after the attack were prominently discussed at the top of the article, it did not mention that a Palestinian was also killed until halfway through the article.

CJPME responded to the Associated Press and National Post about this error, insisting that the Palestinian killed by Israeli fire should be mentioned in the first two paragraphs:

“There is an unjustified asymmetry in how Israeli and Palestinian casualties are reported. While the three Israelis who were killed in two incidents are mentioned in the headline and first paragraphs of the article, it is not until the 14th paragraph until you mention that a Palestinian was killed during the Israeli settler attack on Huwara (Hawara) and surrounding villages. The killing of Sameh al-Aqtash, who is unnamed in the article, is the immediate context for today’s retaliatory attack on an Israeli motorist, and this should have featured prominently in the story.”

Within a day, the Associated Press story was updated to properly reference the Palestinian killed by Israeli fire in the second paragraph.

On January 25, 2023, the Toronto Star published a story by the Associated Press which presented inaccurate statistics related to Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in 2022. The original version of the story incorrectly stated that “Wednesday’s deaths brought to 20 the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire this year. Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed last year, making it the deadliest since 2004, according to figures by the Israeli rights group B’Tselem” (emphasis added).

CJPME brought this error to the attention of the Toronto Star’s public editor and the Associated Press, requesting a correction. As we noted, the figures cited by B’Tselem refer only to Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank (including East Jerusalem), and do not include Gaza. When Gaza is included in the figures, the total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in 2022 is 182.

On February 1, 2023, the Associated Press made a correction to the story which appeared in the Toronto Star and other outlets and included the following editor’s note: “This story was first published on January 25, 2023. It was updated on February 1, 2023 to make clear that Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed in Israeli -Palestinian fighting last year in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, making it the deadliest in those areas since 2004, according to figures by the Israeli rights group B’Tselem.”

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.

"We insist that any discussion of Israel’s 'democracy' must come with a qualification that it is not extended to everyone under Israeli rule, and should note the findings of apartheid from the human rights sector. We expect that this critical aspect of Israel’s judicial reforms, and the broader impact on Palestinians generally, will be touched on in future reporting."