The Guardian's Phoebe Greenwood dramatically inflates the number Israeli settlements (Updated)

Though we already posted about Phoebe Greenwood’s July 23 report concerning the EU’s upgrade of Israel’s trading and diplomatic status, EU move to upgrade relations with Israel, I recently recognized a glaring error in the following passage from her piece:

“As recently as 8 June, [Catherine Ashton] issued a statement deploring Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s decision to build an additional 800 settlements in occupied territory – compensation for the 17 Israeli families the country’s high court had ordered to be removed from the Migron settlement.” [emphasis added]

What Greenwood was evidently referring to are 800 new HOMES which Israel recently announced they plan to build – in the existing Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa (see here and here) – and not 800 new “SETTLEMENTS“.

Indeed, there are – even according to the far left, anti-settlement Israeli group Peace Now – 120 “settlements” in total in Judea and Samaria, and another 12 in “East” Jerusalem.

I contacted the Guardian’s Readers’ Editor seeking a correction.

UPDATE: The Guardian has amended their article to correct the mistake. They’ve added this: