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It has been suggested that this article be merged into Moshe Ya'alon, Talk:Moshe Ya'alon misquote#Merger proposal and ]. (Discuss)

The Bogus Moshe Ya'alon quotation is a "notorious" remark falsely attributed to Israeli General Moshe Ya'alon. According to the Columbia Journalism Review, "It’s the kind of quote that makes readers sit up and pay attention." But, "Yaalon never uttered those words."

According to an investigation by the Toronto Star, the alleged Ya'alon quote, "The Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people," first appeared in 2002, but "Yaalon did not say what he is supposed to have said."

The Star investigation concluded that that Ya'alon "certainly," did not utter these words during the 2002 interview with Ari Shavit, a Haaretz reporter, although this interview is widely cited as the original source of the remark.

The Star cites the incident as "a case study in a seldom-examined aspect of popular culture in the electronic age – the self-replicating propagation of erroneous information."

According to the Toronto Star, in the 2002 interview in Haaretz, during which Ya'alon is supposed to have uttered the false quotation, the general Yaalon was actually been trying to make an entirely different point about what would define an Israeli victory in the conflict with the Palestinians. "I defined it from the beginning of the confrontation – the very deep internalization by the Palestinians that terrorism and violence will not defeat us, will not make us fold."

Detection of the falsehood

The Columbia Journalism Review attributes the detection of the false quotation to the media watchdog group, The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, or CAMERA.

The Toronto Star began an investigation of the quotation after Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi published the bogus quotation in an op-ed piece for The New York Times, and was obliged to print a correction.

Gilead Ini, a researcher with CAMERA believes that the error began with Henry Siegman, an academic and Middle East pundit once associated with the Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. In an article published in Dec., 2003 in The New York Review of Books, Siegman wrote of Ya'alon as "the official who had formerly talked of how war would `sear deep' into Palestinian consciousness that they are a defeated people." In that article, the only the words "sear deep" appeared in quotation marks. However, in an article in the London Review of Books in Aug., 2007, Siegman placed the entire phrase in quotation marks, attributing it to General Ya'alon.

Publication of the quote

The quotation, with minor variations, has appeared in broadcast news, on blogs, and in articles in publications including the Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, Toronto Star, Time Magazine, the and the London Review of Books. These reputable publications have issued corrections.

The bogus quote was cited by academic experts on the Middle East, including Professor Rashid Khalidi, who published it seven times.

The Toronto Star published the bogus quote in a 2004 article by columnist Haroon Siddiqui. According to Siddiqui, "The statement attributed to (Yaalon) was not just in the blogosphere but was widely quoted in mainstream, respected publications," furthermore "There had been no correction or clarification sought or given that I was aware of. So I had no reason to think it was not a valid quote."

Time Magazine published a version of Siegman's phrase, "It will be seared deep into the consciousness of Palestinians that they are a defeated people," attributing it to Ya'alon, in February of 2009. The Columbia Journalism Review chastised Time for publishing a correction that implied that the quotation might be real although no source could be found for it.

See also

• Media coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict
• Alleged Ouze Merham interview of Ariel Sharon
• Adnan Hajj photographs controversy
• Muhammad al-Durrah controversy
• Pallywood
• Israeli-Palestinian history denial
• A land without a people for a people without a land

References

1. ^ Damaging Israeli misquote finally corrected, Record set straight seven years after Israel's top soldier was accused of trashing Palestinians, Toronto Star, Aug 08, 2009, Oakland Ross,
2. ^ Don’t (Mis)quote Me; The demise of an error that refused to die, By Craig Silverman. Aug. 14, 2009, Columbia Journalism Review,
3. ^ Demise of a Hoax Quote: CAMERA Prompts Article in Toronto Star, Corrections on Ya’alon Statement, Aug. 14, 2009, CAMERA

• Antisemitic canards
• Arab-Israeli conflict
• Criticism of journalism