Complaint lodged over ‘inexcusable’ BBC headlines

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE

A formal complaint has been entered with the BBC over its coverage of the terrorist attack in Jerusalem on Saturday, according to the Israeli embassy.

Two men were killed and a woman and two-year-old toddler from the same ultra-Orthodox family were wounded during the incident in the Old City, for which terrorist group Islamic Jihad has taken credit.

Yiftah Curiel, a spokesman for the embassy, reported that the complaint is related to a series of “inexcusable” headlines used by the BBC after the attack, the first of which read: “Palestinian shot dead after Jerusalem attack kills two”.

The next said: “Jerusalem attack: Israelis killed in Old City ‘by Palestinian’”.

The BBC then removed the inverted commas around “Palestinian,” and eventually shifted its wording to “Jerusalem: Palestinian kills two Israelis in Old City”.

Earlier, news organisation Al Jazeera apologised for a tweet sent out following the murders which said: “Palestinian shot dead after fatal stabbing in Jerusalem; 2 Israeli victims also killed.”

In an editorial, the media outlet wrote: “Many people in our audience have pointed out that the tweet appears to minimise the killings of the Israeli victims and leaves out the context that the Palestinian man was the attacker.

“This criticism is valid and we regret the wording of a tweet written under the pressure of breaking news.”

Israeli police yesterday named Mohammed Shafik Halabi, a 19-year-old resident who lived near Ramallah, as the killer.