CBS News' recent directive instructing staff to avoid referring to Jerusalem as part of Israel in reports has caused outrage in Israel and in the United States.
The channel recently instructed its staff not to refer to Jerusalem as part of Israel, citing its internationally disputed status. This directive, aimed at "maintaining neutrality in covering the Gaza conflict," has sparked controversy among Jewish employees and Israeli officials, who argue that it undermines the U.S.'s official recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
"It's disappointing to see significant entities trying to make Jerusalem's status as an Israeli city a matter of debate,” Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion said on the issue. “Jerusalem has never been disputed and never will be. It's Israel's eternal capital, now and forever.”
His deputy, Aryeh King, added: "The Jewish people don't need the approval of an anti-Zionist private organization to acknowledge that Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish people and their country, the State of Israel. The Jewish people are blessed that their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, tied themselves and our nation to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.”
“Later, our kings established Jerusalem as their capital and there's no dispute, not in Islam nor in Christianity, that Jerusalem was the capital of the Jewish people. Anyone who follows CBS News knows that the channel's editors and website managers have taken a clear stance against Israel, so why is anyone surprised?” he added.
“This is the embodiment of old antisemitism in a modern form. In the past, it was the Protocols of the Elders of Zion written in Russian; today, it's rewriting history and distorting reality in English."
David Friedman, former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Trump’s close ally who was the first to move the U.S. consulate to Jerusalem wrote on his X account, "Jerusalem is recognized by the United States as the capital of Israel. The U.S. Embassy to Israel sits in Jerusalem. The U.S. Ambassador to Israel lives in Jerusalem. While this was all achieved by President Trump, the policy has been maintained and endorsed by President Biden. And yet, the CBS Network is doing its best to deny this unassailable truth! Shame on CBS!
“Jerusalem’s status is clear and undisputed – the eternal capital of the Jewish people,” National Unity party head Benny Gantz wrote on his X account. “It has been so for millennia, and will always remain so. No attempt to distort or hide that reality will change it.”
Former New York City mayor and close Trump ally Rudy Giuliani wrote that "Jerusalem as the home of the Jewish people dates back to King David approximately 1,000 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. CBS seems to want to seal its hatred of the Jewish people in official policy and blatant censorship.”
Several leading global media outlets have previously decided to avoid calling Jerusalem Israel's capital due to the international dispute. The BBC has omitted references to Jerusalem as Israel's capital on several occasions, and last October, Ynet reported on a series of guidelines given to AP reporters.
Regarding Jerusalem, the agency instructed its staff not to refer to the city as Israel's capital, stating that "Israel considers the entire city its capital. The Palestinians view annexed East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state." It further noted that "the majority of the international community does not recognize Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem and believes its fate should be determined in peace talks."
However, the approach of CBS – home to acclaimed programs like "60 Minutes"– goes further, seeking to avoid mentioning Jerusalem as part of Israel altogether. This directive is viewed by many company employees as a more extreme step than acknowledging the conflict over East Jerusalem's status.
"It's not about whether East Jerusalem was occupied by Israel or if it's the capital of a future Palestinian state," said a Jewish news reporter at the network. "The management's decision not to recognize Jerusalem as part of Israel at all – even its western part – shocked many of us."
Official Israeli sources speaking with Ynet said that CBS's directive constitutes "distorted interpretations of international law" and deviates from U.S. policy, which recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital in 1995 with the passage of the Embassy Relocation Act, officially enforced by the Trump administration in 2017.
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