National Geographic Corrects ‘Palestine’ Terminology

CAMERA staff has prompted a National Geographic correction regarding erroneous usage of the term “Palestine.” Contradicting National Geographic style, the July 27 article (“Living Descendants of Biblical Canaanites Identified Via DNA“) had originally stated that “[a]ccording to the results [of a new study], Canaanite ancestry is a mix of indigenous populations who settled the Levant (the region encompassing much of modern Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and Palestine.)”
 

 
References to a modern “Palestine” in the West Bank and Gaza are inaccurate and those areas should be referred to as “Palestinian territories,” or simply the West Bank and Gaza. National Geographic previously corrected this very same point this past December.
 
In addition, CAMERA has recently prompted correction of the same issue at The Los Angeles Times and Voice of America.
 
Editors today agreed with CAMERA that a correction was in order, and immediately amended the text to describe the Levant as referring to “modern Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian territories.”
 
In addition, editors commendably appended a note to the bottom of the article alerting readers to the change.
 

For additional National Geographic corrections prompted by CAMERA, please see here.

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