On September 28, the Saskatoon Star Phoenix erroneously claimed in its headline that "Israel OK’s 1,100 more settlements". Here’s how the article appeared in the print version:
.png)
Contrary to this headline and as contradicted by the print article itself and the Star Phoenix’s online version of this article, Israel is building 1,100 new “housing units” not 1,100 more settlements which implies an enormous building tender. Also, contrary to this article, the majority of the Israeli neighbourhood of Gilo is built on land legally purchased by Jews prior to 1948. In the 1948 war, Jewish lands in Gilo were captured and confiscated by the Jordanian government. From 1948-67, Jewish landowners did not relinquish ownership to their land in Gilo and when Israel recaptured the land in the Six-Day War, Gilo was built – not because of war victories, but because of longstanding legal land purchases.
Gilo lies within Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries and is geographically contiguous to surrounding Jewish neighborhoods that pre-dated the 1967 reunification of the city. Gilo, despite being over the 1967 Green Line, is certainly not a "settlement," in the most used sense of the word which can conjure up images of isolated enclaves in the West Bank or hilltop outposts for those without a knowledge of the region.
In light of this information, we asked the Star Phoenix to issue a correction to remedy this error. We are happy to report that the Star Phoenix immediately and commendibly issued the following correction in the next edition of the paper:
