CAMERA prompts BBC Arabic to amend Tel Aviv attack report

A post by CAMERA Arabic.

Unlike the BBC’s English language website, on August 5th the BBC Arabic website published a report about the shooting attack in Tel Aviv on that day.

After two days during which the article falsely stated that the outcome of that terror attack was “three injured Israelis”, CAMERA Arabic prompted BBC Arabic to acknowledge the death of one of the wounded Israeli civilians – Tel Aviv municipality patrolman Chen Amir, aged 42.

This is not the first time that BBC Arabic has failed to update the death toll of a Palestinian terror attack in a timely and appropriate manner (i.e. not after a week or only on Twitter). Notably, Chen Amir succumbed to his severe wounds in the hospital barely four hours after the shooting took place.

Another amendment prompted by the same communication from CAMERA Arabic concerned the breakdown of Israeli and Palestinian fatalities since the beginning of the year. The original BBC Arabic article concluded with the following statement:

“The death toll [caused] by the attacks, clashes and military operations since the beginning of January rose to no fewer than 207 Palestinians, in addition to 27 Israelis.

This number includes combatants and civilians, among them minors, on the Palestinian side.” [emphasis added]

However, not only the on Palestinian side do the fatalities include minors. Of the 28 (rather than 27) Israeli citizens killed (including soldiers but not including a Ukranian, an Italian and a Palestinian who were all murdered in attacks aimed at Israeli civilians) since the beginning of 2023 and up to the BBC’s August 5th publication, five were minors: Asher Natan Morali (14), Asher Menachem Paley (7), Yaakov Yisrael Paley (5), Nachman Shmuel Mordoff (17) and Elisha Antman (17).

Furthermore, unlike at least 18 out of the 35 Palestinian minors killed during the same period, none of the Israeli minors were either affiliated with a militant group and/or armed at the time of their deaths.

CAMERA Arabic’s complaint prompted the BBC to remove the paragraph referencing minors altogether.

Coincidentally or not, the wording used in an AFP Arabic language article reporting the Tel Aviv attack was almost identical to that used by BBC Arabic:

AFP:

“The death toll [caused] by the attacks, clashes and military operations since the beginning of January rose to no fewer than 207 Palestinians, in addition to 27 Israelis, a Ukranian woman and an Italian man. 

This number includes combatants and civilians, among them minors, on the Palestinian side.”

 BBC:

“The death toll [caused] by the attacks, clashes and military operations since the beginning of January rose to no fewer than 207 Palestinians, in addition to 27 Israelis. 

This number includes combatants and civilians, among them minors, on the Palestinian side.”

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