Guardian: Tel Aviv Is Israel's Capital

The photograph, which ran as part of the newspaper’s “Eyewitness” section, depicted passengers on the Jerusalem Light Railway observing the two-minute silence on Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day, last Thursday, the 19th of April.

According to the Guardian’s online Corrections and Clarifications column, the caption to the photograph “wrongly referred to the city as the Israeli capital.”

The column clarifies that, according to the Guardian style guide, "Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel; Tel Aviv is". The style guide itself adds that this is “a mistake we have made more than once”.

An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson commented: “Actually, it’s the Guardian who owes an explanation to its readers for publishing something that cannot be described but as a blatant lie. When a claim is so factually wrong as to insult intelligence, then unfortunately the word ‘lie’ is not too harsh, and one cannot but wonder about the motivation of such a conceit.”

One blogger on the website CiFWatch asked, “Is there any other country in the world for which the Guardian’s style guide defines the capital as being other than the city that country has selected as its capital?” The same blogger described the incident as a demonstration of “the utter perversity of the Guardian’s reporting about Israel.”

CiFWatch describes itself as being “dedicated to monitoring antisemitism and combating the assault on Israel’s legitimacy in the Guardian newspaper’s ‘Comment is Free’ blog.”

Jerusalem is considered Israel’s capital under Israeli law, housing the Knesset (Parliament), Supreme Court and government ministries. However, this is not recognised internationally, with most foreign embassies, including those of the UK and USA, housed in Tel Aviv.

The above photo is of the Guardian’s headquarters. Credit: Mark Hillary