An Associated Press (AP) article on the murder, by Palestinian terrorists, of four Israeli civilians in the West Bank on Tuesday published at the Guardian was inexplicably edited to remove the word “Israelis” from the headline and opening sentence.
First, here’s the original AP headline:
Here’s the Guardian’s edit of that headline:
Two Palestinian attackers opened fire at a restaurant and gas station near an Israeli settlement in the West Bank on Tuesday, killing four Israelis and wounding several other people before they were shot dead, authorities said…
A Palestinian attacker has opened fire at a gas station near an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, killing at least four people and wounding several others, Israeli medics have said…
From the moment news broke of the terror attack, it was known that all four victims – two of whom were children – were Israelis, and so it’s hard to fathom why Guardian editors decided to edit out that basic information.
(As our colleague Tamar Sternthal noted in a post yesterday, Agence France Presse similarly omitted that pertinent fact in both the headline and opening sentence of their report on the terror attack.)
We’ve complained to Guardian editors asking them to restore the original AP wording, but haven’t received a reply.
It seems that The Grauniad’s policy editor decided that omitting “Israeli” in their so-called report will reduce readers’ sympathy for the nation’s tragic loss. Anything that will harm Israel is good by The Graundiad’s book.