UPDATE
Following our complaints, the AP has updated its story, which now includes the following:
Jan. 8, 2017
A Palestinian truck driver rammed his vehicle into a crowd of Israeli soldiers at a popular Jerusalem tourist spot, killing four people and wounding 17 in the deadliest single attack of more than a year of Israeli-Palestinian violence. It was the latest in a string of stabbings, shootings and vehicle ramming attacks in a wave of violence that erupted in the fall of 2015.
Thank you to all of you who added your voices to achieve this result.
The appalling terror attack in London involved a vehicle being driven at speed into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge causing deaths and injuries. This has prompted comparisons with other terror attacks around the world where vehicles have been used as weapons.
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According to an Associated Press article focused on other examples of vehicle attacks around the world, the London attack “was the latest in a string of incidents in which drivers used their vehicles as weapons.”
The AP then goes on to describe the following incidents:
- January 2017 – Melbourne, Australia
- December 2016 – Berlin, Germany
- July 2016 – Nice, France
- December 2014 – Dijon and Nantes, France
- October 2014 – Montreal, Canada
- June 2007 – Glasgow, Scotland
But which country is conspicuous by its absence?
As documented by Israel’s Foreign Ministry, Israel has suffered 55 vehicular (ramming) attacks since the beginning of the wave of terror in September 2015.
AP could have taken its cue from fellow wire service Reuters, which did include the following in its own story:
Vehicle attacks are not a new tactic in the Middle East.
In 2008, a Palestinian rammed a bulldozer into vehicles on a Jerusalem street before a visit by then US presidential candidate Barack Obama, wounding at least 16 people.
Another Palestinian drove his truck into a group of Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem in January this year, killing four of them in an attack that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said was likely to have been inspired by Islamic State.
Why is it that terror against Israelis simply doesn’t register on AP’s radar?
While it is most likely an oversight, the omission of Israel from the article begs the question as to why it was overlooked and why terror in Israel is treated differently to terror in other countries. The failure to acknowledge Palestinian vehicular terror in the same terms as similar attacks elsewhere does nothing to challenge a false and unfortunately prevalent narrative that excuses or attempts to justify Palestinian actions. It also erases Israeli victims of terror in a way that would not be the case for the terrorist attacks that AP did describe.
