CAMERA Prompts LA Times Correction on Golan Heights

CAMERA’s Israel office prompted a The Los Angeles Times correction today on an article which erroneously reported that Fijian peacekeepers on the Golan Heights were released by the Al Nusra Front “in the Israel-occupied Golan Heights.”
 
Nabih Bulos’ article in the Sept. 12 print edition (“Militants free U.N. troops”) erred:
An Al-Qaeda affiliated faction operating in a southern province of Syria freed 45 United Nations peacekeepers in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, U.N. officials said.
The U.N. peacekeepers were not freed in “the Israel-occupied Golan Heights,” but in the part of the Golan Heights still under Syrian control. As the Associated Press had reported:
U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said the Fijians were released at the Syrian side of the Quneitra crossing point, which marks the area between Syrian-controlled territory and the Israeli part of the Golan Heights. (Emphasis added.)
Israel returned Quneitra to Syria as part of a 1974 armistice agreement.
 
The online version of the same LA Times article did not error, and accurately reported:
An Al Qaeda-affiliated faction operating in a southern province of Syria freed 45 United Nations peacekeepers in the Golan Heights on Thursday, U.N. officials said.
Following communication from CAMERA staff, Times editors commendably published the following correction today:
Golan Heights release: In the Sept. 12 LATExtra section, a Late Briefing item about the release of United Nations peacekeepers by militants in Syria said it took place in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The release occurred on the Syrian side of the Quneitra border crossing.
In 2012, The Los Angeles Times had previously corrected an inaccurate reference to Quneitra as part of the “Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.”
 
For additional Los Angeles Times corrections prompted by CAMERA, please see here.

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