The British Guardian newspaper has apologised for referring to Tel Aviv as Israel capital and issued “corrections and clarifications” in both print and online versions.
"We accept that it is wrong to state that Tel Aviv – the country's financial and diplomatic center – is the capital,” the paper stated.
In April, the Guardian ran a correction apologizing for "wrongly" having called Jerusalem Israel’s capital a few days earlier in a picture caption featuring passengers on a tram in Jerusalem observing a two-minute silence for Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The London paper then stated that according to its style guide, Tel Aviv is the country’s capital. The style guide at the time stated that designating Jerusalem as the capital is “a mistake we have made more than once.”
In explaining its corrections, the paper said: "While it was therefore right to issue a correction to make clear Israel's designation of Jerusalem as its capital is not recognised by the international community, we accept that it is wrong to state that Tel Aviv – the country's financial and diplomatic centre – is the capital. The style guide has been amended accordingly."
At the time, the Israeli-based media monitoring group HonestReporting, whose mission is "defending Israel from media bias," complained to the British Press Complaints Commission (PCC) and the media regulator issued a ruling in May declaring that Tel Aviv was indeed Israel’s capital.
After Honest Reporting initiated steps to file for a judicial review of the decision, the PCC in July retracted its original ruling and asked the Guardian to defend their position — which culminated in this week’s correction.
"This correction is a significant achievement against a newspaper that has been a major contributor to the broader delegitimization of Israel in the UK and beyond," said Joe Hyams, HonestReporting’s chief executive, to The Jerusalem Post.
"It is shocking that it has taken the threat of legal action to reverse a decision that was not based on reality. Nonetheless, it was vital that we took on the Guardian and the PCC as a matter of principle, particularly at a time when Jerusalem’s status as Israel’s capital is increasingly being called into question by the media."