New York Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan issued a rare admission of mistake last Friday, after an article last Sunday that portrayed Arab Israelis in Haifa as cultured and “cool” was disputed by a key pro-terror Arab source, who said he was misrepresented.

The article, written by Diaa Hadid, focused on “liberal Arab culture” in Haifa, but Ayed Fadel, a main source quoted in the article, revealed on Facebook last Monday that “90%” of what he said, which was about “resistance,” was taken out. He slammed the attempt by “white media” to portray Arab citizens of Israel as “cool yay hipsters.”

In response, Sullivan on Friday wrote an op-ed entitled “More Context Needed on Article on Haifa Culture,” admitting to the failure of the article while noting Fadel’s complaint that the majority of what he said was pulled and that was not unusual.

“What was largely missing, however, was something else I recommended in my Mideast column: plenty of context,” she wrote.

“While it’s impossible (and a bad idea) to summarize the history of Israel and Palestine in every piece of news coverage or every feature article, this article needed more political and historical information to put it in perspective.”

Sullivan added that, “no framing of an article like this will satisfy everyone. But The Times can do better with providing more context and information, even in a feature story.”

A follow-up to the article was published last Thursday, in which Hadid told Sullivan a full four people interviewed in the article complained that they were misrepresented.

“I wrote this story really because I wanted to pay tribute to Haifa’s unique culture, and particularly how Palestinian citizens of Israel had carved their own dynamic, liberal scene in the city,” wrote Hadid.

“For that reason, I was mortified to find out that at least four people I had interviewed felt that I had misrepresented them in the story, and that it had garnered more criticism than any other story I have written in nearly a decade of coverage of the Middle East.”

Hadid reportedly worked in the past with the pro-Hamas site Electronic Intifada, as well as with the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment.

Honest Reporting, which revealed Fadel’s previous Facebook posts in which he gave open support for terrorism and called for the “collapse” of Israel, responded to Sullivan’s admission on Sunday.

“The hatred of Israel espoused by the people she (Hadid) interviewed should have been included in the article so that readers would understand that their liberal views end when it comes to peace and coexistence.”