CAMERA’s Israel office prompted yesterday correction of a Haaretz Op-Ed in in which Member of Knesset Heba Yazbak of the Joint List overstated the disparity between the number of murders solved in Israel’s Arab community versus its Jewish community. The Op-Ed, which appeared in print in the Feb. 5 paper, (English and Hebrew) falsely alleged: “This is the same police force that solves 70 percent of murder cases in Jewish society and zero percent in Arab society.”
In fact, according to Haaretz‘s investigation in November, “police have solved only 22 percent of murder cases in Arab communities this year as opposed to 53 percent of murders in Jewish communities, according to figures obtained by Haaretz” (“Israeli Police More Than Twice as Likely to Solve Murder of Jews Than Arabs,” Nov. 1, 2020)According to Haaretz‘s 2019 figures, 32 percent of the murder cases in the Arab community were solved that year, versus 60 percent in the Jewish community.
In response to communication from CAMERA, Haaretz commendably corrected the digital editions, English and Hebrew. The amended article now accurately states: “This is the same police force that solves 50 percent of murder cases in Jewish society and 20 percent in Arab society.”
Contrary to common journalistic practice, a note was not appended to the bottom of the Op-Ed alerting readers to the change. Nor has a correction appeared in the print edition.