AP Corrects Erroneous Description of UN Resolution 242

CAMERA staff prompted a correction at the Associated Press, after the wire service again misreported the details of United Nations Security Council Resolution 242. The amended language makes clear the differences between the actual wording of 242 and the “Arab interpretation” of the resolution:

Error (Associated Press, Salah Nasrawi, 3/18/05): The Jordanian proposal is meant to amend a Saudi peace initiative adopted at the 2002 Arab summit held in Beirut, which offered Israel peace with all Arab nations on condition it returns all land seized in the six-day war of 1967 – including East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Syria’s Golan Heights – in line with U.N. resolutions 242 and 338. [emphasis added]

Correction (Updated story, 3/18/05): The Saudi initiative offered Israel peace with all Arab nations on condition that Israel returns all land seized in the six-day war of 1967 in line with the Arab interpretation of U.N. resolution 242. [emphasis added]

The initiative also calls for the creation of a Palestinian state and a solution to the Palestinian refugee issue. Resolution 242, passed after the 1967 war, calls on Israel to withdraw “from territories occupied in the recent conflict” but does not say explicitly that the pullback should be from all such territories. However, Arabs view the resolution as just that – calling for Israeli withdrawal from East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Syria’s Golan Heights.

While AP’s Middle East coverage is still problematic, this same-day correction is a positive sign that the influential media outlet may be taking more seriously its journalistic responsibilities to “acknowledge substantive errors and correct them promptly.”

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