Early versions of the BBC News website’s initial report on the agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates – ‘Israel and UAE strike historic deal to normalise relations’, August 13th 2020 – informed readers that:
“The agreement marks only the third Israel-Arab peace deal since Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948. Egypt signed one in 1979, and Jordan in 1994.”
Our colleagues at CAMERA Arabic contacted the BBC to point out that an agreement was also signed between Israel and Mauritania in 1999 (but was suspended by Mauritania a decade later) meaning that the UAE-Israel deal is the fourth, rather than the third, since 1948.
The BBC News website responded:
“Thank you for getting in touch about our article Israel and UAE strike historic deal to normalise relations.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described this as “the third formal peace deal between Israel and an Arab nation” and we stand by our wording.
However we’ve since added a line in the article which also refers to the Mauritania deal, which was frozen by Mauritania in 2009.”
The current version of the article reads:
“Egypt signed a deal with Israel in 1979, and Jordan in 1994. Mauritania also established diplomatic ties with Israel in 1999, but froze the deal in 2009.”
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