Key points in 60 Minutes report about Christians in 'the Holy Land' unsubstantiated and false

CAMERA points out that one of the key assertions in 60 Minutes' segmenton Christians in 'the Holy Land' was demonstrably false (Hat Tip: Soccer Dad).

Radliffe, you’ll remember, was the producer of the 60 Minutes segment on Christians in the Holy Land – the segment that falsely reported the security barrier “completely surrounds Bethlehem, turning the ‘little town’ where Christ was born into what its residents call ‘an open air prison.’”

The security barrier does not “completely surround Bethlehem” but in fact passes by its northern and western sides.

CAMERA called Radliffe on Monday April 30, 2012 and asked for 60 Minutes’ source of misinformation about the security barrier. Radliffe said that the Israeli Ministry of Defense was the source of information about the security barrier. He went on to say that maybe the people at the Ministry of Defense “don’t know what they are talking about" suggesting that the error was not the fault of 60 Minutes, but was really the fault of the Israeli government.

When CAMERA asked Radliffe for the name of the official at the Ministry of Defense who gave 60 Minutes the information he said he didn’t have the name and that we should call 60 Minutes’ office in Tel Aviv for that information.

Later on Monday, CAMERA contacted the CBS communications department (via email) for the name of someone we should contact about 60 Minutes’ “source” at Israel’s Ministry of Defense. We have received no response.

So we are left with Radliffe’s statement that the Israeli Ministry of Defense is the source of the error that appeared in the 60 Minutes episode.

This seems pretty incredible. The idea that the Israeli Ministry of Defense would provide such an obvious misstatement of fact about the security barrier just does not make any sense.

Why?

Well, the Ministry of Defense has a map of the security barrier’s route on its website!

And the map clearly shows that the security barrier does not “completely surround Bethlehem.”

I'm sure that many more lies about that segment will be exposed in the weeks ahead....