Complaint
The programme included a discussion of the Northern Ireland Executive’s handling of the pandemic, during which the presenter invited the two guests to comment on the apparent success of the Israeli government’s vaccination programme. A listener complained that the discussion contained a number of inaccuracies, most notably the claim that “they’re not vaccinating Palestinians”, and that a correction broadcast the following week had compounded the problem by perpetuating the implication that Israel had a responsibility to provide vaccination to Palestinians in the occupied territories. The ECU considered the complaint in connection with the ±«Óătv’s Editorial Guidelines on accuracy.
Outcome
The claim that Israel was not vaccinating Palestinians was incorrect in relation to Palestinians with Israeli citizenship or residing in East Jerusalem. It was also incorrect for the presenter to say that a third of the Israeli population had been vaccinated, and that the population of Israel was six million. The ECU noted the correction read out by the presenter at about the same time the following week, which was as follows:
I want to make a clarification about one of our programmes last week. During a discussion on last Tuesday’s programme about how different governments have responded to Covid-19, we made an inaccurate estimate of Israel’s population and the number of its citizens who have received a Covid-19 vaccine. For clarity, Israel has a population of 9 million – not 6 million as we’d suggested – and around one fifth of Israeli citizens have received a Covid-19 vaccine at this stage, which is lower than the one third total we’d mentioned.
It’s also important to point out that whilst there’s been some dispute about the Israeli government’s responsibility for vaccinating Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza, those Palestinian…those Palestinians who live in East Jerusalem or who hold Israeli citizenship are covered by the roll-out of the government’s Covid-19 vaccination programme and it remains one of the most successful in the world so far, which is the issue we’ve been discussing.
In the ECU’s view, this provided clear acknowledgement and appropriate correction of the factual errors in the discussion. As to the implication of Israeli responsibility towards Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, the terms of the Oslo Accord (as pointed out by the complainant) leave the management of health to the Palestinian Authority, and the Israeli health minister has cited this as the basis for not regarding Israel as having responsibility in the matter. The Palestinian Authority, however cites the Accord’s provisions for co-operation in “combating epidemics and contagious diseases” as laying some responsibility for vaccination on Israel. In the light of this and the various positions taken by the UN and other international bodies, the ECU considered it was appropriate to describe the matter as disputed, and that the broadcast correction was sufficient overall to resolve the issues of complaint.
Resolved