Correction published after false claims in Guardian
Today, The Guardian published a correction to an excerpt from a Comment is free article which appeared in the print edition of The Guardian on Friday 5 June. This followed an objection from Just Journalism about a substantial inaccuracy.
In ‘These prescriptions and analysis remain flawed,’ Ali Abunimah, co-founder of ‘The Electronic Intifada’ website, criticised Barack Obama’s Cairo speech and argued that Israel was much more violent towards Arabs than vice versa. “Did he think his listeners would not remember that the number of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians targeted and killed by Israel has always far exceeded by orders of magnitude the number of Israelis killed by Arabs…?” He asked rhetorically.
When addressing the specific case of Palestinian violence against Israelis, he inserted: “(Note: the last suicide attack targeting civilians by a Palestinian occurred in 2004).” As reports in The Guardian itself demonstrate, there have been no less than seven suicide attacks conducted by Palestinians at Israeli civilians since 2005. This means that the Guardian contributor’s core argument was being supported by claims which were plainly wrong. The Guardian has acknowledged this as a substantial inaccuracy and printed the following correction on page 34 of today’s edition:
“An excerpt from a blog post on Comment is free, about President Obama's speech in Cairo last week, was wrong to say that the last suicide attack targeting civilians by a Palestinian occurred in 2004. In fact, as the Guardian reported in its international news coverage, there have been several suicide attacks by Palestinians since 2004. In most cases Islamic Jihad and Al-Aqsa said they were responsible. However, as we also reported, Hamas claimed responsibility for the Dimona suicide bombing in February last year.”
The excerpt was from the online Comment is free blog piece, ‘A Bush in sheep’s clothing,’ published on Thursday 4 June, within approximately three hours of the end of the US president’s address to the Muslim world. On Friday, Ali Abunimah attempted to correct his error in the online version, posting the following comment:
“I want to clarify that there is indeed an error in my article when it states "Note: the last suicide attack targeting civilians by a Palestinian occurred in 2004." This should have said "the last suicide attack CLAIMED BY HAMAS..." There were indeed several such attacks after 2004 which either targeted occupation forces/installations, or if they targeted civilians were claimed by Islamic Jihad, or the Fatah-linked Al-Aqsa Martrys Brigade." Hamas more or less officially renounced the tactic in 2006 as the Guardian reported at that time (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/apr/09/israel). I apologize for the error, a result of writing under a short deadline. I asked the Guardian to post a correction but that probably won't happen until the morning. Ali Abunimah.”
Unfortunately, Abunimah was wrong again. As today’s correction in The Guardian shows, Hamas claimed responsibility for the 2008 Dimona suicide attack, as reported on 6 February by Middle East correspondent Rory McCarthy in ‘Hamas says it was behind suicide blast in Israel’. The online version now carries an editorial note correcting Abunimah’s correction, which reads:
“This article was amended on Friday 5 June 2009 by Cif editors. A sentence: "the last suicide attack targeting civilians by a Palestinian occurred in 2004" was deleted because it was wrong. As the Guardian has reported in its international newcoverage, there have been several suicide attacks by Palestinians since 2004. The author's clarification, referred to in the editor's note below, also contained an error because Hamas claimed responsibility for the Dimona suicide bombing in February 2008.”
The Guardian’s readers’ editor has responded positively and efficiently to Just Journalism’s criticism. However, it is worth considering the implications of the author’s citing of ‘writing under a short deadline’ as justification for his false claim. It seems that in the rush to publish a response to Obama’s speech, editors at Comment is free did not subject claims in Abunimah’s article to even the most superficial of checks. This failure to fact-check happened again when the incorrect assertion made it to the print edition of The Guardian the following morning.