AFP Corrects Captions on Islam’s, Judaism’s Holiest Sites

October 27, 2015
In response to communication from CAMERA’s Israel office, Agence France Presse has quietly corrected photo captions in its archive which incorrectly identified the holiest sites in Islam and Judaism.
 
As CAMERA reported yesterday, Oct. 25 photo captions published by the influential news agency misidentified the “Al-Aqsa mosque compound,” also known as the Temple Mount or Noble Sanctuary, as “Islam’s holiest site.” In fact, the al-Aqsa mosque is the third most holy site in Islam. AFP captions also incorrectly identified the Western Wall as Judaism’s holiest site. The Temple Mount is Judaism’s most sacred site. The Western Wall is Judaism’s holiest site where Jewish prayer is permitted.
 
The original erroneous captions follow:
 
 
The original caption to the image above had stated:

A general view shows Jerusalem’s Old City’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound with the Dome of the Rock (C), Islam’s holiest site, and the Western Wall (front), Judaism’s holiest site, on October 25, 2015. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that an agreement to put 24-hour security cameras around Jerusalem’s sensitive Al-Aqsa mosque compound was in Israel’s interest. Tensions raised over clashes at the mosque compound, known as Temple Mount to Jews, have spiraled into a wave of daily knife attacks and shootings on Israelis as well as deadly protests. AFP PHOTO/AHMAD GHARABLI

 
The accompanying caption had initially stated:

A general view shows Jerusalem’s Old City’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound with the Dome of the Rock (C), Islam’s holiest site, on October 25, 2015. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that an agreement to put 24-hour security cameras around Jerusalem’s sensitive Al-Aqsa mosque compound was in Israel’s interest. Tensions raised over clashes at the mosque compound, known as Temple Mount to Jews, have spiraled into a wave of daily knife and shootings on Israelis as well as deadly protests. AFP PHOTO / AHMAD GHARABLI

AFP has issued “stealth” corrections to these erroneous captions. In other words, editors changed the captions found in the AFP photo archive but did not alert its subscribers in any way that a correction was made. The corrected captions also includes additional information not noted in the original version, namely that the site is also sacred in Judaism and that the mosque was built in the seventh century on the same spot of the Jewish temple destroyed several centuries earlier. On the down side, the captions still do not note that the Temple Mount is the most sacred site in Judaism.
 
 
The new caption states:

A general views shows the Dome of the Rock mosque located at Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam’s third holiest site, in the Old City of Jerusalem on October 25, 2015. The Al-Aqsa mosque compound is sacred in both Islam and Judaism. The compound in its current form was built in the seventh century by Islam’s second caliph, Omar, on the site of the Second Jewish Temple that was destroyed by the Romans around 70 AD. In Hebrew, it is referred to as Har HaBayit — the Temple Mount. Muslims called it Al-Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary). AFP PHOTO / AHMAD GHARABLI (Emphases added.)

 
The corrected caption is:
A general view shows the Western Wall (front R), the most holy site where Jews can pray, and the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam’s third holiest site, which includes the Dome of the Rock mosque (C), in Jerusalem’s Old City, on October 25, 2015. The Al-Aqsa mosque compound is sacred in both Islam and Judaism. The compound in its current form was built in the seventh century by Islam’s second caliph, Omar, on the site of the Second Jewish Temple that was destroyed by the Romans around 70 AD. In Hebrew, it is referred to as Har Habayit — the Temple Mount. Muslims call it Al-Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary). AFP PHOTO / AHMAD GHARABLI (Emphasis added.)
For additional AFP corrections prompted by CAMERA, please see here.
 
See also “CAMERA Prompts New York Times Correction on Western Wall, Temple Mount“

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