British tabloid issues retraction after claiming UK charity funded Palestinian ‘hate festival’

British tabloid newspaper the Daily Mail today issued a retraction after it falsely claimed that UK-based charity Interpal funded a Palestinian “hate festival”.

Published today in its “corrections and clarifications” column, the Daily Mail wrote that “[its] articles dated 2 and 15 August claimed that Interpal, a charity supporting Palestinians, funded a ‘hate festival’ in which children acted out the murder of Jews”.

“In fact,” the newspaper wrote, “while Interpal donated to the festival, it did not fund or support the play and the Trustees of Interpal unequivocally condemned the activities the play depicted.”

The retraction continued: “It was not our intention to suggest that the Trustees promote or condone anti-Semitism or attacks on Jews [and] we apologise to the Trustees for any distress caused.”

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The Daily Mail also addressed its labelling of Interpal as a “specially designated global terrorist organisation” in one of the abovementioned articles, writing: “We are happy to make clear that this designation, which took place in 2003, has always been strongly contested by Interpal and its Trustees, and Interpal continues to operate lawfully within the aegis of the [British] Charity Commission.”

“The Trustees assure us, and we accept, that neither Interpal, nor its Trustees, have ever been involved in or provided support for terrorist activity of any kind,” the newspaper added.

Interpal was founded in 1994 to provide humanitarian aid and development funding to Palestinians, predominantly in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt), Lebanon and Jordan. It still operates in the region to this day.

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