ABC Apologizes for Mistaking Palestinians as Israelis During Newscast

The error came during Wednesday night’s edition of ‘World News,’ in which anchor Diane Sawyer described the people in an Associated Press photo as Israelis who had been attacked by Palestinian missiles. Later, a pro-Palestinian reporter, Rania Khalek, identified the people as Palestinians who had been attacked by Israeli air strikes. The network posted an apology on the show’s Facebook page.

Red-faced ABC News officials apologized early Thursday morning for misidentifying shell-shocked Palestinians as Israeli victims of a Hamas missile attack.

The gaffe came during an "ABC World News" report on Tuesday about the rapidly escalating crisis between Israel and the Palestinians. Anchor Diane Sawyer described an Associated Press photo as Israelis "trying to salvage what they can" after a Palestinian missile attack. The image, however, actually shows Palestinians walking through rubble with their belongings following an Israeli air strike.

The mistake was identified by pro-Palestinian journalist Rania Khalek late on Wednesday. During Thursday's predawn hours, "ABC World News" posted a statement to its Facebook page acknowledging the error: "On Tuesday night `World News' aired a report on the conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis, including attacks from both sides. In the introduction to the story, we mistakenly identified a family depicted in a still photo. They are Palestinian, not Israeli. We regret the error and will correct it."

Palestinians attacked in J'lem after being misidentified as Jews

Three Arab youths violently attack car of Palestinian family they misidentify as Jews. 'They tried opening the doors and my wife begged them to leave us alone. She spoke to them in Arabic and only then did they understand that we ourselves are Arabs'

Photo of Tuvia Grossman

On September 30, 2000, the New York Times, the Associated Press, and other media outlets published a photograph of a club-wielding Israeli police officer standing over a battered and bleeding young man.[54] The photograph's caption identified the young man as a Palestinian and the location as the Temple Mount.[54] The young man in the picture was 20-year old Tuvia Grossman, a Jewish American student from Chicago who had been studying at a Yeshiva in Israel; the Israeli police officer in the photograph, who appears to have beaten Grossman, actually came to his rescue by threatening his Palestinian assailants.[54][55]

On October 2, 2000, Grossman's father sent the following email to the New York Times:[56]

"Regarding your picture on page A5 (Sept. 30) of the Israeli soldier and the Palestinian on the Temple Mount – that Palestinian is actually my son, Tuvia Grossman, a Jewish student from Chicago. He, and two of his friends, were pulled from their taxicab while travelling in Jerusalem, by a mob of Palestinian Arabs and were severely beaten and stabbed. That picture could not have been taken on the Temple Mount because there are no gas stations on the Temple Mount and certainly none with Hebrew lettering, like the one clearly seen behind the Israeli soldier attempting to protect my son from the mob."

On October 4, 2000, the New York Times issued the following incomplete correction, which incorrectly identified the location of the incident:[57]

"A picture caption on Saturday about fighting between Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem included an erroneous identification from The Associated Press for a wounded man shown with an Israeli policeman. He was Tuvia Grossman of Chicago, an American student in Israel, not an unidentified Palestinian. In some copies the caption also misidentified the site where Mr. Grossman was wounded. It was in Jerusalem's Old City, but not on the Temple Mount."

On October 7, 2000, the New York Times published an article about the incident and printed the following, more complete, correction:[55][58]

" A picture caption on Page A6 last Saturday about fighting in Jerusalem gave an erroneous identification from The Associated Press for a wounded man shown with an Israeli policeman. He was Tuvia Grossman of Chicago, an American studying at a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem, not an unidentified Palestinian. In some copies the caption also included the news agency's erroneous reference to the site. The incident occurred in an Arab neighborhood of Jerusalem, not on the Temple Mount or elsewhere in the Old City."

"A correction in this space on Wednesday cited the errors incompletely and omitted an explanation of the scene. The officer was waving a nightstick at Palestinians, telling them to stay away from Mr. Grossman. He was not beating Mr. Grossman."

"An article about the incident and the photograph appears today, on Page A4. "

The Grossman photo appears frequently in Israeli criticisms of the media, because the photograph implied that the police officer who rescued Grossman had beat him, it implied an Israeli perpetrator, it implied a Palestinian victim, and it conveyed the opposite of what had transpired.[54][56][59][60] According to Honest Reporting's promotional videos, the pro-Israel watchdog was established in 2000 in response to this incident, which it describes as "the photo that started it all".[61][62] Seth Ackerman of FAIR described the attention given to the photo, as well as the three NYT corrections, as disproportionate to a "plausible, though careless" assumption resulting from "garbled information from the Israeli photographer".[63]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.