“Jewish Only Road” Falsehood Corrected

After dispatching a story that referred to Israel’s (non-existent) “practice of reserving some roads for Jews,” the Associated Press modified its wording to correctly describe the roads, which in actuality are open to Israeli citizens and residents of all religions and ethnicities.

Before the AP caught and corrected its mistake, though, the Boston Globe published the early version of the story, along with its error. To its credit, the newspaper quickly cleared the record with a correction after CAMERA brought the inaccuracy to the attention of editors there.

The initial AP story, a December 29 dispatch by Amy Teibel asserted:

Israel’s Supreme Court ordered the military on Tuesday to allow Palestinians to travel on the part of a major highway that runs through the West Bank, handing Palestinians their biggest victory yet against Israel’s practice of reserving some roads for Jews.

Some hours later, on Dec. 30, the AP sent out the same story with corrected language:

Israel’s Supreme Court has ordered the military to let Palestinians travel on the part of a major highway that runs through the West Bank, handing Palestinians their biggest victory yet against Israel’s practice of banning them from some roads.

(An AP photo caption with the erroneous language has yet to be corrected.)
 
The Globe‘s error and correction follow:
Error (Boston Globe, AP article by Amy Tiebel, 12/30/09): Israel’s Supreme Court ordered the military yesterday to allow Palestinians to travel on the part of a major highway that runs through the West Bank, handing Palestinians their biggest victory yet against Israel’s practice of reserving some roads for Jews.

Correction (1/5/10): An Associated Press story on Dec. 30 incorrectly stated Israeli restrictions on road travel. Israel reserves some roads for the use of Israeli citizens.
For more on the often misdescribed highway, see here.
 
Jan. 13 Update — AP Sends Out Correction
 
Two days after the Boston Globe ran its correction, the AP sent out the following correction:
In some versions of a Dec. 29 story about a Supreme Court ruling on highway usage, The Associated Press erroneously reported that Israel has a network of roads reserved for Jews. These roads are open to all Israeli citizens, including Arabs, as well as foreigners and tourists, while banning virtually all Palestinians.

The AP has failed, however, to correct the inaccurate photo caption.

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