Aussie Site Engages With Unfounded Headline on ‘Revenge Killing’

The Australian news site news.com.au boasts:

Australia’s number one news site in 2013 and 2014, news.com.au reaches over 3.7m* Australians, delivering extensive breaking news and national interest stories thanks to our team of dedicated journalists plus the strength of the News Corp Australia network.

Our readers want to get to the point of the stories that really matter, so we bring this to them with timely news updates around the clock.

We say what people are thinking and cover the issues that get people talking. We balance Australian and global moments – from politics to pop culture. We live to engage with readers and at appropriate times provide an alternate angle on the news that involves humour when least expected.

Editors apparently seek to engage readers, at the expense of accuracy and accepted norms of journalistic practice regarding news reporting, with a sensationalist and false headline concerning the murders of Eyal Yifrach, Gil-Ad Shaar, and Naftali Frankel and surrounding events.

Today’s article is headlined:

The bolded first sentence repeats the falsehood that the Palestinian casualty yesterday was the result of a “revenge killing.”

Further down in the otherwise fair and balanced article (for which no byline can be found), there is an additional vague reference to the alleged victim of the so-called “revenge killing”:

The man killed on Tuesday was the first casualty since the bodies were found.

Who is this unfortunate victim of an alleged “revenge killing”?

According to Haaretz:

A 19-year-old man was killed Monday night in the West Bank, during an arrest in the Jenin refugee camp. According to an Israel Defense Forces officer, the man was shot after he threw a grenade at soldiers.

(The Associated Press adds that family members maintain that Yosuf abu Zaghah, 20, was carrying eggs when he was killed.)

There is no justification for the tendentious and unfounded labeling of Tuesday’s fatality during an arrest operation a “revenge killing.”

A note at the bottom of the news.com.au article indicates that the original headline for this piece had been “Murdered Israeli teens laid to rest,” a perfectly factual and impartial title.

Meanwhile, the overnight discovery of the body of 16-year-old Muhammad Hussein abu Khdeir of eastern Jerusalem has fueled suspicion that this was a “revenge.killing” by Israelis . The perpetrators have not been identified and there is an ongoing investigation.

The Huffington Post reports:

“We have not yet been able to determine if the motive was nationalistic or criminal,” Jerusalem police chief Yossi Parienti said. “We are investigating every possibility.”

“I ask Jerusalem residents and everyone else not to jump to conclusions, to wait for developments. There are conjectures and working assessments, we are not hurrying to say one way or another. I ask everyone to show responsibility, understanding and patience.”