CAMERA’s Israel office last week prompted correction of a Reuters video which erroneously had placed the former U.S. consulate in eastern Jerusalem. Reporting on plans to reopen the American consulate in Jerusalem, the video had erred twice, incorrectly locating the former US Consulate which was home to the Palestinian Affairs Unit.
The video initially began: “Plans to reopen an American consulate in east Jerusalem serving Palestinians have prompted pushback from the Israeli government.”
The video misreports a second time: “A year later, the U.S. shuttered the east Jerusalem consulate . . . “
In fact, the Palestinian Affairs Unit of the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem was located on Agron Street, in the western part of the city, not in east Jerusalem. The Agron building in western Jerusalem appeared in the video when the voiceover erroneously referred to “the east Jerusalem consulate” (51 seconds) and again at 1:24.
Separately, the State Department also had operated America House Jerusalem, a center for cultural, tech and educational programs, located on Nablus Street in east Jerusalem. It is the America House logo which appears at 0:03 as the narrator refers to the “American consulate in east Jerusalem.” While the America House was in east Jerusalem, it wasn’t the consulate.
The accompanying article, “Israeli rightists seek to outlaw opening of US Palestinian mission in Jerusalem,” does not include this error.
Haaretzcorrected the identical error which had appeared in its English earlier last week.
In response to communication from CAMERA, Reuters promptly corrected the video, changing “east Jerusalem” to “Jerusalem” in both the voiceover and the closed caption. CAMERA commends the correction.