Can You Imagine? Press Council: Gideon Levy Must Apologize

...It said that Levy had broken the code of ethics that requires a journalist to check facts, to be accurate, and to refrain from referring to the ethnic backgrounds of people unless it is relevant to the subject. Likewise, Haaretz itself should have verified the article’s content and its accuracy, the council asserted.

TS..
CAMERA Snapshots..
17 November '13..

Times of Israel reports:

The Israel Press Council reprimanded the Haaretz newspaper and its columnist Gideon Levy for an opinion piece earlier this year in which Levy suggested that a former border policeman had learned from his service dealing with Palestinians that “killing innocent civilians can go unpunished” and as a result shot dead four people in a Beersheba bank.

The tribunal demanded that both Levy and Haaretz issue an apology, Haaretz reported on Thursday. . . .

The Israel Police lodged a complaint with the Press Council after the opinion piece was published. In its decision, the council rejected a claim by Haaretz and Levy that the article was an acceptable expression of opinion and should therefore be allowed.

It said that Levy had broken the code of ethics that requires a journalist to check facts, to be accurate, and to refrain from referring to the ethnic backgrounds of people unless it is relevant to the subject. Likewise, Haaretz itself should have verified the article’s content and its accuracy, the council asserted.

As an example, it noted that Alon, the shooter, had only served in the Border Police for one year in 1995-1996, that during that time he conducted joint patrols with Palestinian security forces, and that he had not been involved in any incidents that could be construed as causing him to commit the assault in the bank 17 years later. Likewise, there was no basis for the claim that in the Border Police Alon learned to “kill innocent civilians without being punished,” the council concluded.

For more on Gideon Levy's shoddy journalism, please see here.

Link: http://blog.camera.org/archives/2013/11/press_council_gideon_levy_must.html

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Haaretz and the apartheid pseudo-poll

Dr. Gerald M. Steinberg..
Israel Hayom..
01 November '12..

The pseudo-poll and headline published by Haaretz on Oct. 23 is now generally acknowledged as a major mistake. The poll's manipulative methodology and shallow questions have been dissected in newspaper columns and talk shows across the Israeli spectrum. Haaretz was forced to publish a correction, which was largely hidden, and Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy wrote a minimal retraction.

However, a great deal of damage has been done outside Israel, where this farce was used to further the campaign of anti-Israel political warfare and demonization. The British Guardian and Independent, the Canadian Globe and Mail and Australia's Sydney Morning Herald ran the story accompanied by headlines as misleading as the headline on the original Haaretz piece: “Many Israelis support apartheid-style state, poll suggests,” and “The new Israeli apartheid.”

The poll that generated such attention was flawed in many dimensions. In Maariv, Ben-Dror Yemini details many of the false claims and absurd statements it contains. And in Haaretz, former Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Dr. Yehuda Ben-Meir emphasized that the actual conclusion to be drawn from the poll results was “exactly the opposite of what's written in the article's headline” and that the majority of Israelis were “unwilling to live in a country with an apartheid regime.” As a “push” poll used for crude political manipulation, and involving only 503 people, this survey was driven by clear political objectives.

Ha'aretz Repeats 'Jewish-Only Apartheid Roads' Canard

Tamar Sternthal
CAMERA Media Analysis
29 August '10

While former Meretz leader Yossi Sarid, now a columnist at Ha'aretz, is perfectly entitled to his opinions, neither his past nor present positions grant him any immunity when it comes to publishing falsehoods. And yet, in his column today, Sarid repeats the "Jewish-only roads" falsehood propagated several times over the last few years by Ha'aretz. Weighing in on the recent opposition of Israeli theater professionals to performing in a new cultureal center in Ariel, a large settlement over the Green Line, Sarid writes:

The artists can't be dragged to Ariel in blunt contradiction of their political beliefs; they can't be driven on our Jewish-only apartheid roads.

In a certain respect, the former lawmaker is correct. The artists can't be driven on "Jewish-only apartheid roads" . . . . because none exist. As first explained several years ago to Ha'aretz editors, there are no "Jewish-only" roads (apartheid or otherwsie) in the West Bank, though there are a few roads prohibited to Palestinians in the West Bank. Israel's Arab citizens and, indeed, Israeli citizens of any religion or ethnicity, have just as much right to travel on those restricted roads as do Israeli Jews. Israeli Arabs frequently use the bypass roads for business and to visit relatives.

(Read full report)

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Libel

Yaacov Lozowick
Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations
15 April '10

(The original title of this post was "Blood Libel", however the author felt the title was overly strong and retracted the title. I have removed "Blood" but left "Libel")

A few days ago Haaretz splashed a new story across the top of its front page, knowing perfectly well that it would spread like wildfire all over the world: Israel is gearing up to deport tens of thousands of Palestinians. And of course, it did. The fools and the knaves all hugged the story to their hearts and ran with it as far and as fast as they could.

Nothing about this is surprising: not the willingness of Haaretz to harm the country by spreading lies, not the eagerness of our enemies to wield them.

If there's anything at all about the story that's remotely surprising, it's the ease with which it can be disproved. Any reasonable observer of Israel knew immediately that the story couldn't be true as told; the fact that its originators were one of our radical Left NGOs (Hamoked) reinforced this gut feeling. Elder of Ziyon, an anonymous blogger with no public position, sent an e-mail to the appropriate official, who explained that the reality is more or less the opposite of that reported by Haaretz. Here's the full response, though I recommend following the link to read Elder's important comments about the case:

1. The new military order was signed 6 months ago.

2. There are no changes to the repatriation system or the authority/means to repatriate illegal residents in Judea and Samaria. The only difference is that now the process includes a judiciary review.

3. The decision to establish a judiciary committee to review the administrative process of repatriation was taken in response to the Israeli High Court of Justice (בג"ץ) decision that there should be judicial oversight.

(Read full post)

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