Belgian TV Channel VTM to Issue Correction After False Claims on Palestinian Voting Rights
Belgium's VTM channel faced criticism from Israel's ambassador after broadcasting that 7.5 million Palestinians lack voting rights in Israel. The channel later admitted a numerical error.
Belgian television channel VTM broadcasted a headline stating that "7.5 million Palestinians have no right to vote" in Israeli elections, ignoring the fact that Arab citizens of Israel vote and are elected to the Knesset. Following a demand for a correction and an apology by Israel's ambassador to Belgium, the channel claimed a numerical error was made.
Ambassador David Saranga, who assumed office earlier this month, published an open letter to the news editors of the channel. "This is an extremely grave claim that creates a fundamentally misleading picture," he wrote, questioning who these 7.5 million Palestinians are and in which elections VTM believes they should be entitled to vote. He noted that if the figure includes the roughly two million Arab Israelis, the claim is simply false, while if it refers to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, a vital fact was omitted: they are not Israeli citizens and therefore do not participate in Knesset elections.
Drawing a comparison, the Ambassador stated that by the same logic, 18 million Dutch citizens do not vote in Belgium, yet no one would claim that "18 million Dutch citizens lack voting rights," as they are not Belgian citizens. He questioned why this crucial distinction is omitted when reporting on Israel.
Saranga further pointed out that the channel failed to mention that the last Palestinian parliamentary elections were held in 2006, nearly twenty years ago. Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) has once again postponed elections to September 2027. In a post on X, Saranga recalled that this promise of elections was among the commitments that underpinned France's recognition of a Palestinian state, noting that the recognition was enacted while the elections were not.
According to reports in Belgian media, VTM stated they would broadcast a correction in their evening edition, explaining that they intended to refer to individuals without an Israeli passport living in East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank, but admitted that the figure cited was incorrect and that their actual number is smaller.
