Early on the evening of August 19th the BBC News website published a report by the BBC Jerusalem bureau’s Yolande Knell concerning a fatal terror attack which had taken place several hours earlier in Huwara.
Headlined ‘West Bank: Two Israelis killed in suspected Palestinian shooting near Huwara’, Knell’s report predictably does not use the term terror to describe the point-blank shooting of a father and son from Ashdod and was not updated to include the names of the victims after they were released for publication some two hours later.
“Two Israelis have been killed in a suspected Palestinian shooting attack in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military says. […]
The shooting took place at a carwash, according to Israeli media reports.
The gunman is said to have approached on foot and opened fire with a handgun.
The Israeli ambulance service says that two men aged about 30 and 60 were pronounced dead at the scene. Both are said to have been civilians.
Israeli media reported that they were father and son.”
Around 24 hours later the report was updated to include more details but the victims were still not identified even though that information had been in the public domain since the previous evening and their civilian status was still unnecessarily qualified: [emphasis added]
“The Israeli ambulance service said the two men aged 28 and 60 were pronounced dead at the scene. Both are said to have been civilians from Ashdod in southern Israel.
Israeli media reported that they had come to the West Bank to fix their car and spent several hours in Huwara.
They say that the attacker spoke to them briefly – maybe to check if they were Jewish Israelis – before shooting them at point blank range.”
The second paragraph of both versions of Knell’s report includes links to two BBC reports from February 27th:
“It happened near the village of Huwara – which has been the scene of previous deadly attacks on Israelis and rampages by Jewish settlers in retribution.”
The first of those links leads to a report by David Gritten which is in fact not about “deadly attacks on Israelis” but rather is headlined ‘Settlers rampage in West Bank villages after Israelis killed’. The second link takes readers to a report by Tom Bateman titled ‘Hawara West Bank: ‘What happened was horrific and barbaric’’ in which the sole mention of the murders of two brothers the previous day reads as follows:
“On Sunday the Palestinian town was subjected to one of the worst cases of mass Israeli settler violence in years, hours after two settlers were shot dead by a Palestinian gunman.”
The reason the BBC News website cannot offer its readers a link to any stand-alone coverage of the terror attack in which Hallel and Yagel Yaniv were murdered on February 26th is because, as documented here at the time, it did not produce any such reporting.
The final four paragraphs of the first version of Knell’s report read as follows:
“Hawara has long been a flashpoint in the West Bank. It is located on a main road south of Nablus, which is used by Palestinians and Israeli settlers.
In the past, Israelis would sometimes shop there, but that has become uncommon after a recent surge in violence.
This year, the village has seen several shooting attacks in which Israeli settlers and soldiers have been targeted – including the killing of two brothers in February.
That triggered a deadly rampage by a large crowd of settlers in one of the worst such acts in years. There have also been other instances of settler violence.”
In the second version some slight additions were made: [changes in bold]
“Hawara has long been a flashpoint in the West Bank. It is located on a main road south of Nablus, which is mostly used by Palestinians and Israeli settlers.
In the past, Israelis would sometimes shop there and come for services, which are often cheaper in Palestinian areas of the West Bank. But that has become uncommon after a recent surge in violence.”
Knell does not bother to inform readers that the Israeli authorities made a number of arrests in relation to that February rampage (which was the topic of three dedicated BBC News website reports at the time, including a video reposted in this latest report by Knell, as well as a fourth report two months later) and subsequent incidents.
As for the “several shooting attacks in which Israeli settlers and soldiers have been targeted”, the timeline of the attacks in Huwara this year in which four Israelis were murdered and eight wounded – and BBC coverage of them – is as follows:
February 26th: shooting attack in which the brothers Hallel and Yagel Yaniv were murdered – no stand-alone BBC coverage; mentioned to one extent or another in five reports about other topics.
March 19th: shooting attack in which one Israeli civilian was injured – no BBC coverage.
March 25th: shooting attack in which two soldiers were wounded – no stand-alone BBC coverage; mentioned three days later in a report on another topic.
May 4th: stabbing attack in which a soldier was wounded – briefly mentioned in a report on another topic.
May 21st: vehicular attack in which a soldier was wounded – briefly mentioned the next day in a BBC report on a different topic.
June 5th: vehicular attack in which two soldiers were wounded – not reported by the BBC.
June 6th: shooting attack in which one civilian was wounded – not reported by the BBC.
June 9th: attempted stabbing attack – not reported by the BBC.
July 24th: shooting attack on a bus – not reported by the BBC.
August 19th: shooting attack in which Silas (Shai) Nigerker and his son Aviad Nir were murdered – reported by the BBC.
In other words, while the BBC News website has published four reports so far since February on the topic of violence perpetrated by Israelis in Huwara (all of which are repromoted in this latest article), Knell’s August 19th report is in fact the first stand-alone coverage – albeit without naming the victims – of any of the ten Palestinian terror attacks in that location to have appeared in the same time period.
Related Articles:
BBC NEWS WEBSITE COVERAGE OF TWO DAYS OF TERRORISM
REVIEWING BBC NEWS WEBSITE REPORTING ON SHOOTING ATTACKS IN HUWARA
BBC NEWS WEBSITE PUBLISHES FOURTH HUWARA REPORT IN TWO MONTHS
The BBC’s approved reporting policy is to imply that every murder of Israeli civilians is a justifiable act by political militants – that has nothing to do with terror. At the same time, it demands that UK readers pay £159 per annum for the privilege of watching such garbage.