CNN’s Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour identified Haifa in northern Israel as being located in the 'West Bank,' the Jordanian name for Judea and Samaria, in introducing a Palestinian Arab human rights lawyer.
Amanpour made the gaffe on Wednesday during her global affairs interview program on CNN. She introduced human rights lawyer Diana Buttu to respond to an interview with Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon, who discussed the as yet unveiled United States peace plan.
“Diana Buttu is a human rights lawyer and she joins me from Haifa, on the West Bank,” Amanpour said.
In a segment of the interview posted on the CNN website, the introduction is left off.
The clip of the introduction was tweeted by Hillel Neuer, executive director of the NGO UN Watch. He said in his tweet that “Haifa is not ‘on the West Bank.’ It’s in Israel. Where Jews & Arabs live together in harmony.”
Haifa, located in northern Israel, is the third largest city in Israel and has a mixed Jewish and Arab population.