Additional Los Angeles Times Corrections

Correction (1/22/15): Israel: A Jan. 15 OpEd about the Palestinians’ move to join the International Criminal Court implied that Tel Aviv is the seat of the Israeli government. The government is based in Jerusalem.

Error (Los Angeles Times, Elaine Woo, obituary, 9/22/14): In 1958 [Gerald] Larue joined USC’s faculty as a professor of biblical history and archaeology. In the 1960s he took part in digs in Egypt, Palestine and other parts of the Middle East, returning with artifacts preserved in a USC archaeological collection.

Correction (9/24/14): Gerald A. Larue: In the Sept. 22 LATExtra section, the obituary of USC religious scholar Gerald A. Larue referred to archaeological digs in Palestine. The digs occurred in Israel and the West Bank.

Error (Los Angeles Times, Nabih Bulos, 9/12/14): 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.

Correction (9/15/2014): 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.

Error (Los Angeles Times, Laura King, 8/21/14): Israel has mocked [Hamas leaders] for going into hiding even as more than 2,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed.

Correction (9/2/14): Gaza Strip: An article in the Aug. 21 A section said that more than 2,000 Palestinian civilians had been killed in the conflict in the Gaza Strip. Figures from the United Nations indicate that more than 2,000 Palestinians were killed, but the number who were civilians was less than 2,000.

Error (Los Angeles Times, Jean-Claude Demirdjian, letter to editor, 7/29/14): And former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was willing to take a calculated risk by flying in his own plane to Israel.

Correction (7/30/14): Israel: A July 29 letter to the editor incorrectly said former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently flew to Israel on a private plane. In fact, Bloomberg traveled on the commercial airline El Al.

Error (Los Angeles Times, Kate Linthicum, 4/13/14): [Rapper Tamer Nafar] was channeling Scarlett Johansson for a video sketch skewering the actress for serving as a spokeswoman for SodaStream, a company boycotted by Palestinian activists because it is headquartered in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank.

Correction (4/24/14): Tamer Nafar: A profile of Palestinian rapper Tamer Nafar in the April 13 Arts and Books section said that SodaStream, a company that manufactures beverage carbonation machine, was headquartered in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. The company has a factory in the West Bank but is headquartered in Lod, Israel.

Error (Los Angeles Times, Edmund Sanders, 2/5/13): A fourth-grade Palestinian textbook includes a story of a Palestinian who helped rescue a wounded Israeli soldier because, he says in the text, it was “my obligation as a Muslim Arab.”

Correction (2/6/13): Mideast textbooks: In the Feb. 5 Section A, an article about a study of bias in Israelis and Palestinian textbooks said that a Palestinian textbook included a story of a Palestinian who helped rescue a wounded Israeli soldier. The example came from a fourth-grade Israeli textbook.

Error (Los Angeles Times, Maher Abukhater, 1/14/13): Police also removed 25 tents from the area.

Correction (1/16/13): Palestinian tents: An article in the Jan. 14 Section A about a police raid on a tent village set up by Palestinian activists on land that Israel has designated as the site of a new settlement said that the tents were removed. The activists were evicted, but the tents were left standing pending a court appeal.

Error (Los Angeles Times, wires, news brief, 12/31/12): In a major concession to the Gaza Strip’s Hamas leaders, Israel dropped its 5-year-old ban on construction materials crossing into the territory . . .

Correction (1/4/13): A brief article in the Jan. 1 Section A said that Israel had dropped a 5-year-old ban on construction materials crossing into the Gaza Strip. That ban applied to the private sector; Israel had allowed some construction goods into Gaza for humanitarian projects during that time.

Error (Los Angeles Times, Edmund Sanders, 11/20/12): On Monday, Israel attacked the Sharouk communications building in Gaza City where it said four senior members of the Islamic Jihad militant group were meeting.

Among the dead was Ramez Harb, a Palestinian journalist. Israel said he was a legitimate target because he served in the information department of Islamic Jihad.

Correction (11/23/12): Gaza fighting: In the Nov. 20 Section A, an article about attacks by Israel and Hamas referred to Ramez Harb, who was killed in an Israeli strike on the Gaza Strip, as a journalist. Although initial reports said Harb worked for a Palestinian news agency, he was a member of the militant group Islamic Jihad.

Error (Los Angeles Times, news story with no byline, 10/9/12): Originally from Quneitra in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, [Syrian rebel fighter Hanadi] grew up in the poor Damascus neighborhood of Asali.

Correction (10/12/12): Syrian fighter: An article In the Oct. 9 Section A about a female Syrian rebel fighter said that she was originally from Quneitra in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Quneitra, in the Golan Heights, was captured by Israel in the 1967 war, but has been back in Syrian hands since 1974.

Error (Los Angeles Times, Jeffrey Fleishman and Edmund Sanders, 8/6/12): A Sinai militant group, which included at least one extremist from Saudi Ara
bia, released a video last week claiming responsibility for a June attack along the border that killed one Israeli soldier.

Correction (8/8/12): Israeli border violence: In the Aug. 6 Section A, an article about an attack by militants along Israel’s border with Egypt said that an Israeli slain during a previous assault in June was a soldier. The victim was a civilian.

Error (Los Angeles Times Web site, headline, 4/30/12): Israeli-born Islamist [Sheik Raed Saleh] to resume his anti-discrimination campaign

Correction (4/30/12): Hero to Arab-Israelis Returns

Error (Los Angeles Times, Meghan Daum Op-Ed, 1/12/12): Though the ultra-Orthodox haredim make up just 10% of the Israeli population (they’re also exempt from taxes and military service . . . )

Correction (1/17/12): Religion: Meghan Daum, in her Jan. 12 Op-Ed column about religious zealotry, wrote thatharedim — ultra Orthodox Jews — in Israel are exempt from taxes and military service. The haredim are not legally exempt from either obligation; however, most receive exemption from military service because they are essentially full-time religious scholars. For much the same reason, many also do not earn enough money to qualify to pay income tax.

Error (Los Angeles Times, Calendar, 9/26/11): Based on the novel by Lew Wallace, the period drama revolves around Judah Ben-Hur (Heston), a Palestinian nobleman who is enslaved by the Romans, engages in one of the most thrilling chariot races ever captured on screen, and even encounters Jesus Christ.

Correction (9/28/11): “Ben-Hur”: A Sept. 26 Calendar section article about a new DVD and Blu-ray release of the 1959 film “Ben-Hur” described the title character, played by Charlton Heston, as a Palestinian nobleman. The character Ben-Hur was a Jew from Judea who lived long before the place now known as Palestine was given that name.

Error (Los Angeles Times, Terrell Roberts, letter, 5/20/11): . . . .we just had a conservative newspaper in Israel delete Hillary Rodham Clinton’s image from the picture of Obama administration officials in the Situation Room during the Osama bin Laden raid. . .

Correction (5/26/11): Photograph: A May 20 letter to the editor incorrectly said a conservative Israeli newspaper digitally scrubbed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton from a photo of Obama administration officials monitoring the raid on Osama bin Laden. The newspaper that altered the photo is based in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Error (Los Angeles Times, Christopher Hawthorne, 2/2/11): “Decolonizing Architecture” is driven by a simple but provocative question: If and when Israel decides, or is compelled, to leave the occupied territories in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, what should returning Palestinians do with the buildings, roads and bridges the army and the settlers leave behind?

Correction (2/4/2011): “Decolonizing Architecture”: A review of the exhibition “Decolonizing Architectue” in the Feb. 2 Calendar section implied that Israel continues to occupy the Gaza Strip. In fact, Israeli forces pulled out of the area in 2005.

Error (Los Angeles Times, Op-Ed by Rashid Khalidi, 6/17/03): While the media have remained obsessively focused on Hamas, there has been little coverage of Israeli hard-liners like Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, the army’s chief of staff who has publicly expressed his bitterness at the prospect of military operations in the occupied territories being halted if the “road map” for Middle East peace is implemented, and who has talked of rubbing in the fact that the Palestinians are “a defeated people.” Officials like Yaalon are an obstacle to peace.

Correction (8/26/09): Hamas-Israel negotiations: An Op-Ed article titled “Can Hamas Cut a Deal for Peace?,” which was published on June 17, 2003, paraphrased and partially quoted former Israeli army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon as having “talked of rubbing in the fact that the Palestinians are ‘a defeated people.’ ” The Times was recently made aware of questions regarding the source and accuracy of this material. The Times has been unable to verify that Yaalon expressed the thought or used the quoted words. The quote and the paraphrase should not have been used.

Error (Los Angeles Times, Duke Helfand, 5/11/09): Benedict’s Middle East pilgrimage began in Jordan and will also take him to the West Bank, where he’ll visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and Jerusalem’s Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site.

Correction (5/14/09): Pope Benedict XVI: The Beliefs column in Monday’s Section A about the pope’s visit to Israel and the West Bank suggested that the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and the Western Wall are on [sic] the West Bank. Yad Vashem is in west Jerusalem; the Western Wall is in the contested Old City of Jerusalem.

Error (Los Angeles Times, Nicholas Goldberg, Backgrounder, 4/5/09): Avigdor Lieberman, a right-winger from the Yisrael Beiteinu party who rejects the idea of a Palestinian state. . .

Correction (4/9/09): Israel: A Sunday Op-Ed article about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned an ancient tunnel reopened beneath the Western Wall and the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The tunnel runs adjacent to the wall. The same article said that Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman rejects the idea of a Palestinian state. Lieberman has said that he rejects the idea that Israel has committed itself to a two-state solution.

Error (Los Angeles Times, Mousa Abu Marzook, Op-Ed, 1/6/09): In the six-month period preceding this week’s bombardment, one Israel was killed. . .

Correction (1/14/09): Israeli deaths: A Jan. 6 Opinion article by Mousa Abu Marzook suggested that only one Israeli had died as a result of Palestinian violence in the six months preceding the current Israeli operation in Gaza. In fact, five Israelis died during that period.

Error (Los Angeles Times, Borzou Daragahi, 11/20/08): “The only explanation for the presence of these modified uranium particles is that they were contained in the missiles dropped from the Israeli planes,” the [International Atomic Energy Agency] report [on the bombed Syrian facility] said.

Correction (11/27/08): Uranium particles: A Nov. 20 Section A article about International Atomic Ene
rgy Agency reports on Syria and Iran misattributed an explanation for the presence of uranium particles in Syria to the IAEA. The explanation that the modified uranium particles must have been “contained in the missiles dropped from the Israeli planes” was from a Syrian government letter that was quoted by the report.

Error (Los Angeles Times, Ashraf Khalil, 7/7/08): In the meantime, Israelis, who feel safer thanks to a massive concrete barrier sealing off their nation from much of the West Bank, are openly debating what many believe is a renewed threat from within.

Correction (7/11/08): West Bank barrier: An article in Monday’s Section A about divisions between Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem said a “massive concrete barrier” separates Israel from much of the West Bank. The barrier is a series of walls, trenches and fences and is not all concrete.

Fact: Less than 10 percent of the barrier is a concrete wall.

Error (Los Angeles Times, Richard Boudreaux, 1/28/08): Israel began reducing the flow of electricity . . . across Gaza’s borders after the militant Islamic movement Hamas, which had won parliamentary elections in 2006, seized full control of the territory in June.

Correction (3/25/08): Gaza electricity: A Section A article on Jan. 28 reported that Israel had begun reducing the flow of electricity to the Gaza Strip after the Islamic movement Hamas seized full control of the territory in June. Although Israeli sanctions had caused electricity shortages by curtailing supplies of diesel fuel to Gaza’s only power plant, Israel did not reduce the amount of electricity it sells to Gaza until early February.

Error (Los Angeles Times, Richard Boudreaux, 10/31/07): Unlike Israeli Arabs, who number 1.4 million and make up one-fifth of the country’s population, Druze serve in the military.

Correction (11/3/07): Israeli army: An article in Wednesday’s Section A about a raid on a Druze village in Israel said that Arabs did not serve in the Israeli army. Military service is not compulsory for Arab citizens of Israel, but they can enlist voluntarily. A small number of them do so.

Error (Los Angeles Times, Teresa Watanabe, 9/16/07): . . . younger Jews . . . grew up to see Israel command the Mideast’s largest military.

Correction (10/13/07): Israel’s military: An article in the California section Sept. 16 about young American Jews reconnecting with Israel stated that Israel has the largest military in the Mideast. Although some experts rank Israel’s military as the most powerful in the region, it does not have the largest budget or number of personnel.

Error (Los Angeles Times, sidebar, 5/1/07): Hezbollah militants begin a series of deadly rocket strikes into Israel that will continue for the duration of the conflict, striking as far south as Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city.

Correction (5/11/07): Lebanon: A background box accompanying a May 1 article in Section A about Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert incorrectly said that during last summer’s war in Lebanon, Hezbollah fired rockets “as far south as Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city.” Some of the rockets landed farther south than Haifa.

Error (Los Angeles Times, Rone Tempest, 8/2/06): Family members in Beirut are hopeful that Israel will release [Samir] Kuntar, who is serving multiple life sentences for murder and terrorism in Hadarim Prison for his role in the 1979 raid on a Jewish settlement that left four people dead, including a 4-year-old girl.

Correction (8/11/06): Prisoners in Israel: An Aug. 2 article in Section A about Arabs in Israeli custody identified Nahariya as a Jewish settlement. It is a town in northern Israel.

Error (Los Angeles Times, headline, 7/29/06): Israel Rejects Peace Offer

Correction (8/2/06): Middle East warfare: A Page One headline on Saturday saying “Israel Rejects Peace Offer” inaccurately summarized Israel’s response to Lebanon’s seven-point proposal. No formal offer had been presented to the Israeli government, so none had been rejected.

Error (Los Angeles Times, Op-Ed by Henry Siegman, 6/18/06): The death of an entire Palestinian family — a father and his six children — on a Gaza beach earlier this month, followed just a few days later by an Israeli missile strike that killed nine more Palestinian civilians, has reopened the controversy ….

[S]ince Israel’s disengagement from Gaza last year … Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israeli artillery and airstrikes virtually on a daily basis.

Correction (7/17/06): A June 18 article on the Mideast conflict stated that a father and his six children were killed in a June 9 Israeli artillery strike on a Gaza beach. A man, his wife and five children in their family died. The article also said that Palestinian civilians have been killed “virtually every day” since Israel’s disengagement from Gaza. Statistics from B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights group, show that Palestinian civilians have been killed on fewer than half the days since the disengagement last year.

Fact: The newspaper’s correction claims the Palestinians were killed in an “Israeli artillery strike on a Gaza beach.” But Israel has denied the explosion was caused by an IDF shell, and even Siegman avoided blaming an incoming Israeli shell. The correction also refers to the number of days in which “Palestinian civilians have been killed.” Siegman’s Op-Ed, however, referred more specifically to civilians killed by Israeli artillery or airstrikes, something which has happened on only few of the days since Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza. Regardless, the correction’s claim that Israel has killed Palestinian civilians on “fewer than half the days since the disengagement” is misleadingly imprecise. Based on B’tselem documentation, on fewer than 25 percent of those days were Palestinian civilians killed by Israel.

Error (Los Angeles Times, Laura King, 3/11/06): An estimated 3.2 million Palestinians live in the West Bank.

Correction (3/27/06): West Bank: An article in the March 11 Section A incorrectly reported the Palestinian population of the West Bank as 3.2 million. The population numbers are heavily disputed, but the most generally accepted estimate is 2.3 million.

Error (Los Angeles Times< /i>, Arden Reed, 12/11/05): Fifty-three artists and art groups participated, some from Western Europe or the New World, but most from the old Ottoman Empire or environs: Croatia Albania, Kazakhstan, Iran, Israel, Palestine, Romania.