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by Tamar Sternthal
Firefighters respond to a fire near a rocket attack from Lebanon, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, near Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel, June 14, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
In a report last month on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Keir Simmons erroneously referred to locations within internationally-recognized Israeli territory in the north of the country as “settlements.” He erred: “Just this morning, we count three Israeli settlements targeted by Hezbollah rockets.”
On the morning of June 14, Hezbollah launched rockets at the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona and the village of Kfar Szold. They are neither in the West Bank nor in the Israeli Golan Heights (which Syria claims but which the United States recognizes as Israeli).
Neither Kiryat Shmona nor Kfar Szold is a “settlement,” which refers to Israeli communities over the Green Line in the disputed West Bank.
Kfar Szold was founded in the early 1940s, even before the State of Israel, and Kiryat Shmona was founded in 1949, nearly two decades before the Six-Day War. (Following the Six-Day War in 1967, Israeli settlements were founded in the West Bank and pre-existing Jewish communities in the West Bank that were decimated during the 1948 war were re-established.)
Among the numerous media outlets which previously corrected after erroneously delegitimizing locales sitting on internationally-recognized Israeli territory as “settlements” include France24 (Arabic), BBC (Arabic, dozens of times since Oct. 7), Deutsche Welle (Arabic), Reuters (Arabic), Euronews (Arabic), Agence France Presse (English), and earlier (2017), The New York Times. The mischaracterization of communities within internationally recognized Israeli territory as “settlements” is particularly a problem in Arabic discourse. It is regrettable that the falsehood has found its way into MSNBC coverage.
While MSNBC has agreed that the term “settlements” was inaccurate and should not have been used, the network has declined CAMERA’s request to broadcast a correction.
Tamar Sternthal is the director of CAMERA’s Israel Office. A version of this article previously appeared on the CAMERA website.
