CNN Errs on Israeli Victims, Newton’s Law
Covering the murder of Israeli Eviatar Borovsky, and Israeli attacks on Palestinians in the aftermath, CNN’s Sara Sidner incorrectly reports today (“Settler killed, Palestinians fear reprisals“):
It was the first fatal attack on a settler since March 2011, when Udi and Ruth Fogel and three of their children were killed in the West Bank.
In fact, Palestinians killed three other Israelis in the West Bank after March 2011. On Sept. 23, 2011, Palestinians threw rocks at Asher Palmer’s vehicle as he drove near Hebron, killing him and his one-year-old son Yonaton. CNN reported on those killings at the time:
One of Palmer’s killers was convicted of manslaughter a few days ago.
In addition, Jerusalem resident Ben Yosef Livnat was killed April 24, 2011 by Palestinian police officers when he entered the area of Joseph’s Tomb, near Nablus, without prior coordination with Palestinian officials. Again, CNN reported on that incident:
Unfortunately, not only does Sidner err on the facts, but she also resorts to facile — and false — platitutudes about violence between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank, writing:
Retaliation for harm done by one community to another is a fixture of life. It is almost as certain as Newton’s law: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. (Emphasis added.)
If that were really the case, an innocent Palestinian family — mother, father, and three sleeping children, including an infant — would have been brutally murdered in their home. Of course, that hasn’t happened. While some settlers have undertaken so-called “price tag” attacks against Palestinians, as happened yesterday, Sidner’s claim that “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction” is a gross misrepresentation.
In a 2011 analysis of B’Tselem’s statistics for Israeli and Palestinian casualties in the West Bank, CAMERA’s Steve Stotsky found that nine times more Israeli civilians were killed by Palestinians in the West Bank than Palestinians were killed by Israeli settlers in the previous 11 years. So much for Newton’s law.
Update, 4:30 PM EST: CNN Removes the Error
Following communication from CAMERA, CNN promptly removed the factual error. The text now states:
In March 2011, Udi and Ruth Fogel and three of their children were killed in the West Bank.
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