UPDATED: Wall Street Journal‘s Creative Cartographers
The Wall Street Journal seems to have jumped the gun a bit, drawing “Palestine” over the West Bank in a map accompanying a News Hub broadcast.
Here is a capture image of the map, in which the West Bank is erroneously indentified as “Palestine”:
Given the fact that there is no current state or internationally-recognized entity of “Palestine,” labeling the West Bank or Gaza as “Palestine” is erroneous. See, for instance, this State Department map which correctly labels the West Bank.
This is not the first time that The Wall Street Journal has incorrectly used the term Palestine. The earlier error, and inadequate correction, follow:
Error (Wall Street Journal, Heading for World Watch; World Watch; 7/10/08): Palestine. . .[Israeli raids] “undermine grossly our efforts aimed at rebuilding our capacity and reestablishing law and order,” Falam Fayyad said at a news conference he held Wednesday in the West Bank city of Ramallah with visiting Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.
Correction (7/11/08): Salam Fayyad is the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority. An item in Thursday’s World Watch column incorrectly gave his name as Falam Fayyad and indicated he was prime minister of Palestine.
Had the 2008 correction made clear to WSJ readers and staff that it is inaccurate to refer to the West Bank or Palestinian Authority-controlled territories as “Palestine,” perhaps we would not be rehashing the same error in 2012.
(Hat tip: Yitzhak S.)
Oct. 17 Update: WSJ Commendably Corrects
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