LA Times Falsely Blames Home Sales in ‘Palestinian’ Land for Attacks on LA Jews

By: Tamar Sternthal July 8, 2024

July 10 UPDATE:

LA Times Corrects on 'Palestinian Land,' Legality of Settlements

In response to communication from CAMERA's Israel office, Los Angeles Times editors have corrected the digital edition, clarifying the erroneous claim that West Bank settlements sit on "Palestinian land," and also noting that the legality of settlements are disputed, and not a matter of fact. See below for a detailed update.

The Los Angeles Times has found a culprit for the violent June 23 attacks against Los Angeles Jews outside the Adas Torah Synagogue. And, no, it's not the Palestinian Youth Movement, the pro-terror organization which organized the assault targeting the Pico-Robertson Jewish house of worship.

The day's violence, carried out by an antisemitic, largely masked mob calling for "Intifada," included blocking Jews from accessing their place of worship, releasing bear spray into the face of a journalist, and the beating of at least one Jew and a pro-Israel demonstrator, according to the Jewish Journal.

The Los Angeles Times has remarkably discerned that the impetus for this outrageous violent activity on Los Angeles streets is the sale of Jewish settlement homes located on ostensibly Palestinian land in the West Bank. Or as the page-one July 4 put it: "West Bank at center of L.A. protest; Clash at Adas Torah synagogue was sparked by an event promoting real estate for Jewish settlements in seized Palestinian territory."

Jeffrey Fleishman's accompanying article, also available online, likewise opens with the "seized Palestinian land" fallacy:

The recent violence at the Adas Torah synagogue in Los Angeles was rooted in a decades-long international battle over the expansion of Jewish settlements on land Israeli seized and occupied during the 1967 Six-Day War with Arab states.

The latest skirmish in that battle -- which has been at the center of Israeli-Palestinian animosities -- broke out June 23 when pro-Palestinian demonstrators, protesting against a real estate promotional event in which at least one company was offering properties for sale in the occupied West Bank, clashed with pro-Israel counterprotesters.

Building settlements on seized Palestinian land is a violation of international law and threatens the prospects that Palestinians will one day have an independent country as part of a two-state solution. … [Emphasis added.]

A photo caption in the print edition article also repeats the inaccurate terminology: "Building settlements on seized Palestinian land violates international law. . . "

But the land on which Israeli settlements are located have never before in history been under Palestinian control or sovereignty. As Fleishman himself correctly notes further down in his article, the West Bank "was seized from Jordan in the Six-Day War." Prior to Jordan's illegal occupation which lasted from 1948 to 1967, the West Bank was under control of the British, as part of the British Mandate. Before the British Mandate starting in 1917, the territory was under Ottoman control. Going back earlier in history, Palestinian Arabs never held control over the West Bank or any other territory.

On what basis, then, is the disputed territory on which Israeli settlements sit "Palestinian"?

The territory's status, like that of all of the West Bank, is to be resolved by negotiations anticipated by U.N. Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973), the 1995 Israeli-Palestinian interim accords, the 2003 international “road map” and related diplomatic efforts taking 242 and 338 as reference points. The co-authors of resolution 242, U.S. Under Secretary of State Eugene Rostow, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Arthur Goldberg, and British ambassador Lord Caradon made clear at the time and subsequently that Jews and Arabs both had claims in the territories, no national sovereignty over the territories had been recognized since the end of Ottoman rule and negotiations would be necessary to resolve competing claims.

If the West Bank were simply Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory, in particular territory belonging to another sovereign state and acquired by aggression, then Israel would be required to withdraw and no negotiations would have been necessary. But since Israel is the obligatory military occupational authority, having won the territory from Jordan in a war of self-defense in 1967 and retained them in a similar conflict in 1973, and competing claims remain unresolved, the West Bank is land Palestinians want for a future state, and land at least some of which many Israelis claim for Israel.

Notably, The Los Angeles Times itself has previously commendably corrected the identical error in 2019. About the West Bank's Jordan Valley where many Israeli communities are located, the Times' Sept. 18, 2019 correction rightly stated:

An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to “Palestinian territory” in the Jordan Valley. The land in question was seized from Jordan in 1967 and has been occupied by Israel. Palestinians want it as part of a future state.

The Washington Post has also corrected the same error. The Sept. 6, 2014 Post correction stated:

A Sept. 5 A-section article about Jordan agreeing to buy natural gas from Israel incorrectly referred to Israel’s occupation of ‘Palestinian lands’ in the West Bank. The Israeli-occupied territories are disputed lands that Palestinians want for a future Palestinian state.

Additional prominent media outlets which have likewise corrected the very same error include The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Voice of America.

In addition, Fleishman's unequivocal assertion that building settlements on West Bank land "is a violation of international law" also requires clarification. Indeed, there are experts in international law who dispute this view, among them Prof. Julius Stone and former U.S. Undersecretary of State Rostow.

Among the media outlets which commendably clarified after categorically labeling Israeli settlements illegal under international include Deutsche Welle and Newsweek.

The inaccurate, partisan references to the disputed West Bank land on which Israeli settlements are located as "Palestinian territory" is straight out of the script of the extremist pro-Hamas Palestinian Youth Movement which organized the violence outside the Los Angeles synagogue.

As detailed by NGO Monitor:

In 2019, a French court, citing a 2015 report from the French General Directorate for Internal Security, claimed that Palestinian Youth Movement is “affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.”

While The Los Angeles Times devoted five paragraphs to Israeli real estate companies — the one that organized the marketing event at Adas Torah (My Home in Israel) and one that did not (Home in Israel) — it could not spare even one word about the terror-affiliated Palestinian Youth Movement which organized the violent events outside the Los Angeles synagogue. Fleishman's article does not at all mention the extremist organization behind the assault.

While a pro-terror organization instigated attacks against Jews in the heart of Los Angeles, The Los Angeles Times falsely implicated Los Angeles Jews checking out homes on supposedly stolen Palestinian land.

In the real estate world, such deception would be denounced as false advertising. At The Los Angeles Times, it's a page-one news story.

CAMERA has contacted The Los Angeles Times to request correction of the "Palestinian land" falsehood. Stay tuned for any updates.

July 10 Update: Los Angeles Times Corrects Digital Article

In response to communication from CAMERA's Israel office, editors have commendably fixed both factual problems in the claim that "[b]uilding settlements on seized Palestinian land is a violation of international law." The updated language now accurately states: "Building settlements in the West Bank is considered by many countries to be a violation of international law." In addition, editors revised a reference further down in the article to the "conflict over the fate of Palestinian lands" to the "conflict over the fact of occupied territory." Moreover, a correction appended to the bottom of the article alerts readers to the changes, stating:

An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to ‘“Palestinian lands” in the West Bank. The land in question is disputed territory seized from Jordan in 1967 and occupied by Israel. Palestinians want it for a future state.

As of this writing, the corrections have not yet appeared in the print edition, although the errors appeared there three times on July 4 (in the headline, the text of the article, and the photo caption.)

Separately, The Los Angeles Times today (belatedly) reported on the role of the Palestinian Youth Movement and Code Pink in organizating the violent assault targeting Adas Torah synagogue ("Pro-Palestinian groups sued over demonstration outside L.A. Synagogue," online only).

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