“Here and Now” Corrects on “New Settlements” Plan

CAMERA’s Israel office yesterday prompted correction of a “Here and Now” program in which host Jeremy Hobson erroneously referred to Israeli plans supposedly to “build 2,500 new settlements.” As CAMERA reported yesterday, the host of the radio program, jointly produced by NPR and WBUR (Boston’s NPR affiliate), had erred:

Speaking of a two state solution, former Secretary of State John Kerry gave a speech about Israel and said that that two state solution is in serious trouble and that a big part of the reason for that is Israel’s continuing push to build new settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Just within a few days of Trump being sworn in, Israel announced plans to build 2,500 new settlements. . . . Is it a sign of more settlements to come? (Emphases added.)

Israel is not pushing to build new settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, Israel has built no new settlements in some two decades, and, as NPR itself recently reported, the announcement in question concerned plans for 2,500 residential units within pre-existing settlements, not 2,500 new settlements. NPR’s Merrit Kennedy accurately reported last week: “Israel says it plans to build 2,500 more homes for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank” (“Israel Says It Will Build 2,500 New Settlement Homes in the West Bank”).
 
“Here and Now” producers quickly and commendably posted the following correction to the bottom of the online page carrying the Jan.30 broadcast: 

Correction: In the audio atop this post, host Jeremy Hobson said the Israeli government was planning to build 2,500 new settlements. The government is planning to build 2,500 new housing units in existing settlements. We regret the error.

We will update further as soon as we have information about an on air correction.
 
The NPR correction follows Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s correction early this week of a headline which confused 4,000 individual residences for 4,000 settlement outposts.
 
For additional NPR corrections prompted by CAMERA, please see here.

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