CAMERA Prompts New York Times Correction on Palestinian Cartoonist

CAMERA’s Israel office prompted a correction of a recent New York Times article, which had claimed Israel imprisoned a Palestinian cartoonist for five months because he had published his work in a publication in a book written by his brother, a Hamas member (“Palestinian Newspaper Accused of Having Run Muhammad Cartoon,” Feb. 3, 2005).

In fact, the cartoonist, Mohammed Sabaaneh, had been charged with having transported money for Hamas.

 
The article, by Said Ghazali and Isabel Kershner, had stated:

Mr. Sabaaneh’s cartoons have at times gotten him in trouble with the Israeli authorities. In February 2013 he was detained at the crossing between Jordan and the West Bank and was held for five months in an Israeli prison. He has said that he was charged in a military court with collaboration with the Islamist militant group Hamas because he had published some cartoons in a book written by his brother, who is a member.

As CAMERA noted last week:
Radio Netherlands Worldwide spoke with Sabaaneh’s lawyer, who told the Dutch public broadcaster that his client was charged with helping Hamas after he “received funds from abroad during his recent visit to the Jordanian capital of Amman and tried to enter the Palestinian territories.” The North American Desk of the IDF spokesmen’s unit says Sabaaneh was sentenced in April 2013 to five months in prison for transferring money to a terror organization.
 
The website Cartoon Movement, which is sympathetic to Sabaaneh and which, unlike The New York Times, doesn’t even promise “all the news that’s fit to print,” cited the Radio Netherlands Worldwide interview, and noted that Sabaaneh admitted to taking the money but denied trying to carry it across the border:

According to his lawyer, Mohammad is accused of accepting money in Jordan for his brother Tamer, a member of Hamas who is currently in an Israeli prison. Mohammad denies this, and claims he handed the money to another person while still in Jordan, because he suspected the funds were linked to Hamas.

The Times has commendably the online article. The amended text now reads:
Mr. Sabaaneh has also been in trouble with the Israeli authorities. In February 2013 he was detained at the crossing between Jordan and the West Bank, then charged in an Israeli military court with handling funds from an illegal organization on behalf of his brother, a member of Hamas, and sentenced to five months in an Israeli prison. Mr. Sabaaneh has said he was charged with collaboration with Hamas because he had published some cartoons in a book written by his brother.
In addition, editors appended the following correction at the bottom of the online article:

Correction: February 10, 2015

An earlier version of this article referred incompletely to Muhammad Sabaaneh’s legal trouble with the Israeli authorities. He received a five-month prison sentence after a conviction for handling funds from an illegal organization on behalf of his brother, a member of Hamas. Because of an editing error, the article also overstated what is known about the genesis of the charges. Although Mr. Sabaaneh has said he was charged because some of his cartoons had been published in a book by his brother, the Israeli authorities have not cited that as a reason.

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