Updated: Wall Street Journal Inflates UN Figure For Destoyed Gaza Homes

By Published On: November 4, 2014

wsj logo.jpg.png

Nov. 19 Update: WSJ Responds, the Report is Correct

Today, an editor from The Wall Street Journal gave a detailed response to CAMERA’s correction request. The editor points out that this UNRWA reports cites 100,000 damaged or destroyed homes. In addition, the OCHA report that CAMERA previously cited (see below for our original, mistaken report) noted that, according to the initial assessment, 20,000 housing units, or six percent of the housing stock was damaged or destroyed. In addition, the report stated, “Current estimates indicate that 29 per cent of Gaza’s total housing stock has been affected, which is more than double the initial estimate.” CAMERA regrets the error.

Nov. 4 — In an Oct. 30 article (“100,000 Gazans still homeless as winter approaches, Says U.N.”), The Wall Street Journal overstates the United Nations’ figure for the number of homes destroyed or severely damaged this summer in Gaza by 500 percent.

The Journal reports:

wsj 100000 homes destroyed Gaza.jpg

In fact, the September 2014 Humanitarian Bulletin for the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs states, “According to initial estimates, 20,000 housing units, nearly six per cent of the housing stock, were severely damaged or destroyed during the hostilities. . . ”

Stay tuned for an update about a correction.

We expose the anti-Israel lies so you don't have to. But we can't do it without your help. Join the fight -- Donate now
CAMERA logo
Tell the World – Share Now!

More from SNAPSHOTS

  • Media Confounds, Calling Israel’s Voting Arab Citizens ‘Palestinian’

    September 24, 2019

    Arab woman voting in Jaffa, 2013 (Photo by Noam Moskovich/The Israel Project (Flickr) The impressive turnout on the part of Arab citizens of Israel in last week's elections -- making the Joint List of Arab [...]

  • Mahmoud Abbas’ Diatribe Threatening Israel Included Bogus Canaanite Claim

    September 10, 2019

    Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ recent anti-Israel diatribe that aired on PA TV was monitored and translated by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). Excerpt: "I say to [Israel]: Every stone you have built on our land [...]

  • A Skewed NY Times Story on BDS, Then a Skewed Letters Section

    August 7, 2019

    After the New York Times published a skewed story about the anti-Israel BDS campaign, we detailed how the newspaper's reporters "put their fingers on the scales in support of BDS." One of the many examples [...]

  • CNN Calls House’s Unifying Anti-BDS Vote ‘Divisive’

    July 24, 2019

    Yesterday, in an overwhelming vote of bipartisan support, the House of Representatives voted 398 to 17 to adopt a resolution opposing the anti-Israel BDS (boycott, divest, sanctions) campaign. Yet, CNN's headline casts the unifying vote [...]

  • NY Times Cites Poll, Hides Palestinian Support for Violence

    July 9, 2019

    The New York Times has struggled to accurately describe polls this year. In January, editor Jonathan Weisman misrepresented Pew polling data to describe a nonexistent surge in Israeli support for the United States under President [...]

  • Not a Scoop: 448 Days Later, NY Times Reports Slur by Palestinian Leader

    June 10, 2019

    In January 2016, on the day Israel buried a pregnant woman stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel publicly criticized what he viewed as a double standard in Israelis law [...]

  • CNN’s Zakaria Indulges Palestinian Propagandist Hanan Ashrawi

    June 9, 2019

    Fareed Zakaria’s weekly Cable News Network (CNN) program (grandiosely named “Global Public Square”) June 9 broadcast included a discussion of the current U.S. Middle East peace plan with guests Hanan Ashrawi (Palestinian Authority official) and [...]

  • After Broadcasting Holocaust Denial, AJ+ Feigns Innocence

    May 31, 2019

    After Al Jazeera created and posted a video questioning "the truth of the Holocaust," officials at the Qatari media giant took a page from the New York Times' book, blaming employees who were working "without [...]

  • In Robert Bernstein Obit, AFP Inappropriately References His Judaism

    May 29, 2019

    Robert Bernstein (Courtesy the New Press) In its obituary yesterday for American publisher Robert Bernstein, Agence France Presse inserted an inappropriate reference to the Human Rights Watch founder who later turned on the organization due [...]

  • Rashida Tlaib Says Palestinians “Provided” Jewish Haven

    May 14, 2019

    As is often the case in politics, much of the back and forth over Rashida Tlaib's latest inflammatory comments — this time about the Palestinians and the Holocaust — seemed to be about partisan point-scoring [...]