CAMERA’s Israel office last week prompted correction of an Anadolu Turkish News Agency caption republished by Getty Images which had erroneously identified Israeli-American Elan Ganeles, murdered by a Palestinian terrorist in the Jordan Valley, as an “Israeli settler.” The caption had erred: “Israeli police inspect the crime scene after Jewish settler killed in shooting attack in Jericho, West Bank on February 27, 2023. (Photo by Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images).” Similarly, the heading erroneously stated: “Jewish settler killed in shooting attack in Jericho.” (Emphases added.)
Elan, a native of West Hartford, Conn., lived in the United States — not in Israel, and not in the West Bank. As Haaretz and many other media outlets correctly reported:
Ganeles was visiting the country for a wedding, and the Israeli-American’s death was announced by his synagogue, Young Israel of West Hartford, which called the attack “brutal” in an email sent to congregants, according to a local newspaper.
Given that Elan wasn’t even living anywhere in Israel or the West Bank when he was murdered, he was certainly not an Israeli settler.
In response to communication from CAMERA, Getty editors commendably ensured that the caption appearing on their news site was corrected. The corrected caption on Getty’s site now refers to an “American-Israeli man.” Similarly, the amended headline now refers to an “American-Israeli Killed … “Numerous captions still appear on the state-run Turkish Anadolu site falsely referring to Ganeles an Israeli settler. As CAMERA’s Gilead Ini has previously reported, “Anadolu has been dubbed as ‘the Turkish Government’s Propaganda Machine’ by Vice and [President Recep Tayyip] ‘Erdoğan’s propaganda machine’ by Turkish journalists sheltering in Sweden and writing for the Stockholm Freedom Center.”
(Hat tip Melissa Weiss)