Peace Now obligated to clarify erroneous statement about Honenu

Tuesday, September 20, 2016, 22:13 During the course of a lawsuit Honenu filed against Peace Now, the two sides came to a compromise agreement and the latter was obligated to explain that data it publicized about Honenu is false.
Approximately three years ago Yariv Oppenheimer, then Chairman and currently Director General of Peace Now, stated at a press conference that a comprehensive report drawn up by the organization proves that it is possible to reduce the budget of communities in Yehuda and Shomron by 1,600,000,000 NIS. Peace Now activists waved a giant check in front of the news cameras and the gimmick was launched.
However it turned out that some of the data publicized by Peace Now was erroneous. Honenu discovered that the report claimed that the regional councils in Yehuda and Shomron funded Honenu in 2010 with close to 70,000 NIS, which is completely false. The report stated that the information appears in Honenu’s financial report, which is, as stated above, not true.
Following a written request from Honenu Attorney Menasheh Yado, Peace Now removed the erroneous information about Honenu from one of the reports on its website. However no-one officially replied to the letter and no-one apologized for the error.
In response Yado filed suit against Peace Now due to the damage caused to Honenu by the publication of the false information. Honenu is supported exclusively by donations. Contributors are informed that no branch of the Israeli government funds Honenu, and neither do any of the councils in Yehuda and Shomron. Additionally the error gave the impression that Honenu benefits from illegal funding.
During the week of Sunday, September 11, the two sides came to a compromise agreement according to which Peace Now will publicize a clarification explaining that there had been an erroneous publication and will also remove the information from an additional report.
Honenu Attorney Menasheh Yado: “The ease with which Peace Now publicizes incorrect data renders all of its reports questionable. I am pleased that in our case the organization’s staff understood their error, which led them to offer a compromise at an initial stage of the litigation. I am hopeful that as they admitted here to publicizing incorrect facts, and this is not the first time that they have publicized erroneous information, they will be careful from now on to speak only the truth.”
In February 2014, Peace Now, after being informed of Honenu’s intention to file a lawsuit, removed from its Facebook page a post defaming Honenu. See the following for details:
February 23, 2014 Peace Now calls for cancellation of Honenu’s non-profit status
February 23, 2014 Peace Now delegitimization campaign against Honenu
February 24, 2014 Peace Now endeavoring to discourage contributions to Honenu
February 26, 2014 Peace Now removed post defaming Honenu from their Facebook page