{"id":542117,"date":"2026-07-15T04:44:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T04:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/542117\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T04:44:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T04:44:07","slug":"does-israel-have-a-capital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/542117\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Israel Have a Capital?"},"content":{"rendered":"

On June 16, 2026, the New York Times published an opinion column by Azadeh Moaveni, a journalist and New York University professor. Moaveni\u2019s column, titled \u201cHow Tehran Won the World<\/a>,\u201d included a basic misidentification of Israel\u2019s capital. Using the journalistic practice of identifying a country by its capital, Moaveni wrote that \u201cthe governments in Washington and Tel Aviv\u201d (emphasis added) attempted to bring about regime change in Iran.<\/p>\n

Jerusalem, not Tel Aviv, is Israel\u2019s capital and the country\u2019s seat of power. Israel claimed Jerusalem as capital in two proclamations<\/a> by Prime Minister David Ben Gurion, issued on Dec. 5 and 13, 1949. Ben Gurion also urged the Knesset\u2014Israel\u2019s parliament\u2014to relocate from Tel Aviv, where it was temporarily located because of the 1948 War, to Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

On Jan. 23, 1950, the Knesset adopted a declaration that states Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish state. A part of the declaration reads<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Whereas with establishment of the state of Israel, Jerusalem once more becomes the capital; Whereas practical difficulties which caused the Knesset and government institutions to be temporarily housed elsewhere have now for the most part been removed and the government is carrying out the transfer of its institutions to Jerusalem; The Knesset expresses the wish that construction of the seat of the government and Knesset in Jerusalem proceed speedily on the site allotted by the government for this purpose.<\/p>\n

Despite the Knesset\u2019s declaration, most member states of the United Nations do not recognize Jerusalem as Israel\u2019s capital. They maintain that Jerusalem\u2019s fate will be determined in final status negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, which would presumably include settling who holds sovereignty over the city.<\/p>\n

CAMERA contacted the Times on June 18, 2026, requesting a correction to Moaveni\u2019s column. CAMERA noted that the Times previously\u00a0<\/a>corrected this point in 2022. CAMERA also mentioned other media outlets\u00a0which have likewise corrected the identical error. These outlets include\u00a0The Associated Press<\/a>,\u00a0Reuters (multiple times<\/a>),\u00a0The Hill,\u00a0Fox<\/a>,\u00a0Newsweek<\/a>,\u00a0U.S. News & World Report<\/a>,\u00a0Deutsche Welle<\/a>, CNN and Alhurra in\u00a0Arabic<\/a>,\u00a0NPR<\/a>, and many others.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On June 30, the Times\u2019 opinion section rejected the correction request, noting that although Israel claims Jerusalem as capital, and although the U.S. recognizes this claim, Jerusalem is a \u201ccontested site\u201d<\/a> and is not recognized as Israel\u2019s capital \u201cby most observers and authorities.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the Times assertions are technically correct, they fail to account for the other considerations. If Jerusalem is not Israel\u2019s capital, which city is it? On what consistent and universal basis can this determination be made?<\/p>\n

Further undermining its excuse, the Times report referred to \u201cgovernments in Washington and Tel Aviv.\u201d But the Israeli national government does not reside in Tel Aviv; it resides in Jerusalem, where the Knesset (parliament), the prime minister\u2019s office, and the supreme court are all located. Regardless of its status as capital, Jerusalem is undeniably Israel\u2019s seat of power.<\/p>\n

The Times stands by its article as it is currently published. This decision not only maintains a serious factual error but also presents a host of other issues for the outlet should it continue to take this stance in the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Comments are closed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On June 16, 2026, the New York Times published an opinion column by Azadeh Moaveni, a journalist and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-542117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}