The Associated Press has failed to either substantiate or retract the highly dubious claim that Palestinian laborers from the Jordan Valley village of Fasayil earn just $3 working on Israeli settlements. Data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics shows a very different picture: Palestinians working in the settlements and Israel earn more than double those working in the Palestinian private and public sectors.
The Associated Press, which boasts "world-class journalism" and "global expertise," has been embroiled in a number of recent gaffes in its coverage of Israel and the Palestinians. The latest is a series of captions yesterday which misplaced the U.S. Embassy, moved to Jerusalem in 2018 amid great fanfare and controversy, back in Tel Aviv.
CAMERA prompts correction of a series of Associated Press photo captions which absurdly misidentified the Gaza Strip as the "world's largest Muslim nation." With less than 2 million Muslims, the tiny territory is home to a tiny percentage of the world's 1.7 billion Muslims. Even Germany's Muslim population is more than double Gaza's.
The Associated Press, which in 2018 falsely reported that "Iran has never threatened to attack Israel," again today erases anti-Israel threats, fabricating: Palestinian President Mahmoud "Abbas has always been opposed to violence."
The Associated Press conceals that Israel has fully withdrawn from the Gaza Strip, writing that Palestinians "seek" the territory as part of their future state and ignoring the withdrawal of every soldier and citizen from the territory, now in Hamas hands.
In April, with the global battle to contain the spread of Covid-19 in full swing, CAMERA elicited a record 27 corrections in a variety of news outlets: from major media including The New York Times, Associated Press and NBC, to non-Western and alternative news sources.
Ran Saar, CEO of the Maccabi HMO, is the putative source for the widely reported figure that 75,000 residents of the ultra-Orthodox town of Bnei Brak are likely infected with coronavirus. Media outlets ignore that Maccabi officials cited a miscalculation, and said the actual figure is just 10 percent of that. The executive director said Maccabi has "no idea" how many are infected.
The Associated Press today misleads, stating that most in the Gaza Strip "only have a few hours of electricity a day." In fact, according to United Nations data, every day this month Gazans had more than 12 hours of electricity.
CAMERA prompts correction of an Associated Press article about the new Coronavirus crisis which had falsely charged that Israel prevents surgical supplies from reaching the Gaza Strip. The improved copy also notes Hamas mismanagement of the territory's medical infrastructure.
An Associated Press headline today proclaims "Watchdog says Israel's West Bank settlements surged in 2019," when, in fact, construction was started on fewer Israeli housing units in the West Bank last year compared to 2018 and 2017.
