Even by the appalling standards set by Palestinian terrorists, Sunday night’s brutal stabbing of an Israeli mother in her own home was particularly heinous. Dafna Meir, 38, was a nurse, mother of four children and foster mother to two.
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That she lived in the settlement of Otniel near Hebron should in no way explain, excuse or justify the actions of the Palestinian who broke into her home and stabbed her to death. According to reports Meir bravely fought off her attacker to protect three of her children who were in the house at the time. The horrific attack was witnessed by her 17 year old daughter who gave a description of the terrorist to the IDF.
Given the nature of the attack, its location, the relevant context and the fact that the daughter witnessed the atrocity, it’s crystal clear who was responsible. Not however, for the International Business Times:
Why is the word “Palestinian” in quotation marks in the headline? Yet again we see a media outlet attempting to muddy the waters of Palestinian responsibility for terror.
Despite this headline fail, the IBT was one of the only mainstream media outlets to even cover the terrorist attack. Those that failed to cover the attack at this time of writing, include the Wall Street Journal, CNN, NPR, The Times of London, Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Australian and Sydney Morning Herald.
Continuing the theme of Palestinian victim-hood at the hands of Israel, The Independent included the terrorist attack in two sentences of the 15th paragraph, as an afterthought to a story of Palestinian communities uniting against Israeli demolitions of terrorists’ homes.
As for other coverage, Reuters, in contrast to the Associated Press and AFP wire services, didn’t even bother to publish a stand-alone story on the terrorist attack, instead referring to it as “the latest incident” in what amounted to a roundup of events.
The BBC‘s coverage included virtually no prominent details about the murder itself save for identifying Dafna Meir as a mother in her late 30s. Instead, the choice of headlines demonstrates the BBC’s priorities – the fact that Dafna Meir happened to live in a settlement:
As for the short headline on the BBC’s Middle East homepage, it’s even worse:
The above coverage or lack of coverage raises some serious questions for the media to consider:
- Just how bloodthirsty does a Palestinian terror attack against Israelis have to be to deserve coverage?
- Why do some media continue to downplay Palestinian responsibility for murderous terrorism, instead presenting Palestinians as victims of Israeli malevolence?
- Why should the location of Dafna Meir’s home detract from or even justify the brutal murder of an Israeli mother in front of her children?
Unfortunately, we probably know the answers to these questions already.
