Israel’s Government Press Office (GPO) decided on Thursday to name and shame TIME magazine, which published an article about a “Palestinian graphic designer” who was “killed by Israel” without mentioning that Palestinian was a terrorist who murdered three Israelis.
The article, published on October 15, 2015, by TIME correspondent Rebecca Collard, stated: “On Tuesday, Allyan (sic), a graphic designer from the predominantly Palestinian neighborhood Jabel Mukaber, was killed by Israeli security forces after allegedly trying to carry out an attack in Jerusalem.”
There is no mention of the fact that the Palestinian, Baha Aliyan, had murdered three people with the help of Bilal Ranem – Alon Gobeberg, Haim Haviv and Richard Lakin – and wounded 17 others in an attack on a bus at Armon HaNetziv (East Talpiot) neighborhood in Jerusalem.
The two boarded the bus on Olei HaGardom Street on October 13, one armed with a knife and the other with a gun. They started shooting and stabbing passengers while the bus kept moving, killing a man in his 60s and wounding 10 others. One of the wounded, a man in his 40s, was evacuated in critical condition and was declared dead at the hospital.
Two others were seriously wounded – women aged around 60 and 40, who suffered stab wounds to their upper body. Two others were in moderate condition: a woman of about 60 years old with gunshot wounds to her upper body and a man in his 30s. Three were lightly wounded, and two were suffering from shock.
A security guard at the scene was able to overpower one of the terrorists and shoot him. The attacker then tried to get up and resume his attack, but the security guard shot him again. The second terrorist locked the bus’ doors in an attempt to stop security forces from boarding, as well as stopping passengers from fleeing. Policemen opened fire at him from outside the bus.
Aliyan was killed, while Ranem was wounded.
At the time of the TIME’s article publication, two days after the attack, Alon Gobeberg and Haim Haviv had already been buried, while Richard Lakin was still fighting for his life, and succumbed to his wounds on October 27.
But despite repeated requests from to TIME magazine, initially by an Israeli NGO and later by the GPO, the magazine did not correct the factual error in the article.
“An Israeli NGO first approached TIME Magazine correspondent Rebecca Collard on October 18 and received no response. The Government Press Office contacted Collard on February 25, presented the facts and demanded a correction. Neither recognition nor correction of the erroneous article resulted,” the GPO said.
After being contacted again, Collard responded to the GPO on March 4, 2016, saying: “I’ve forwarded your concerns to my editors.”
But despite repeated reminders from the GPO, the article had not been corrected – five months after the attack.
“When the headlines are lies, journalistic reports are completely biased, and journalistic ethics cry out to the heavens – we decided we will no longer let it pass, and use all of the tools at our disposal in such extreme cases,” GPO director Nitzan Chen said. “I expect the respectable magazine to take responsibility and issue an apology for the sake of human integrity.
This is the least that can be demanded for the families who lost their loved ones in this murderous attack.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry and the GPO have been waging a campaign against biased coverage of Israel in the world media. A CBS News article from February, for example, was titled “Three Palestinians killed as daily violence grinds on,” making no mention of the fact the three attacked a Border Police force, killing officer Hadar Cohen, 19 and wounding her fellow officer.
