BBC Newsnight ‘got sums wrong’ in Israel vax claim

THE BBC has admitted it made a mistake when reporting the rate at which Palestinians were being vaccinated – at a time when Israel was being accused of not sharing the success of its inoculation programme with the Arab population.

During a discussion about a proposed Israeli vaccine passport scheme on BBC Two’s Newsnight in April, presenter Emily Maitlis said: “In Israel, the Palestinian population has not been inoculated at anywhere near the rate of the Israeli population”.

She added that “the rollout to Palestinian citizens has been much slower at 0.5 per cent and that’s led to criticism that a passport scheme will widen a political divide already hurting many in that country.”

Viewer Stephen Franklin complained that the figure of “0.5 per cent” conflated the vaccination rates for Israel’s Palestinian citizens and Palestinians in the occupied territories.

He received a response rejecting his complaint in May. He submitted a second complaint, to which he received a reply in August.

In that reply, the BBC acknowledged “you are right to say that we got our sums wrong – unfortunately we conflated the vaccination rate for Israeli Arabs (where there was, as you say, some reluctance to have the jab) and the very low rate for Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza where

Israel was not vaccinating the population. […]

“We also agree we should have been clear about the issue of vaccine hesitancy.”

According to watchdog, the Committee for Accuracy In Middle East Reporting (CAMERA), at the time “Maitlis did not clarify what she meant by the Palestinian population but if she was referring to Israeli Arabs – as her use of the words ‘in Israel’ would suggest – the claim that that sector ‘has not been inoculated at anywhere near the rate of the Israeli population’ is inaccurate and misleading.

“All sectors of the Israeli population over the age of 16 have been offered the vaccine equally and while uptake was initially lower in some sectors – including among Israeli Arabs – the rates have recently improved.”

The broadcaster has since admitted the figure of 0.5 per cent was not accurate and issued a correction on its website.

The BBC said: “In fact, within Israel it was then estimated to be around 67 per cent. We also said the ‘Palestinian population has not been inoculated at anywhere near the rate of the Israeli population.’ To be clear, this was because of vaccine hesitancy.”

Maitlis did not clarify what she meant by the Palestinian population