Financial Times corrects caption in Middle East essay after misidentifying bystanders in Gaza conflict photo

The Financial Times has corrected a photo caption in its October 15 Books Essay, “Peace, for now: the long history of conflict between Israel and Palestine,” after it misidentified the people shown in an accompanying image.

The article, written by Philip Stephens, examined how decades of failed diplomacy, war and occupation have shaped both Israeli and Palestinian identities — weaving together new works by authors including Hussein Agha, Robert Malley, Jonathan Dimbleby, and Raja Shehadeh. The essay reflected on the fragile calm following the Gaza ceasefire and explored the persistence of Palestinian nationhood amid destruction.

The correction, published on October 24, clarified that a photograph used alongside the piece — originally described as depicting Palestinians mourning a young victim — in fact showed young Lebanese Christians looking at the body of a Palestinian girl.

That distinction matters because it alters both the historical and emotional framing of the image. In a region where national, religious and communal identities are deeply intertwined, misidentifying bystanders risks distorting the context of suffering and the narrative of who bore witness to it. Such an error could also inadvertently reshape readers’ understanding of the visual record surrounding one of the world’s most photographed and contested conflicts.

The FT amended the online edition to correctly attribute the image and reaffirmed its commitment to accurate representation in coverage of the Middle East.