AFP Corrects: 3 Israelis Murdered in Halamish, Not 2

CAMERA prompted corrections to multiple Agence France Presse photo captions today which incorrectly claimed that a assailant killed two Israelis in Halamish. In fact, a Palestinian terrorist stabbed three members of the Salomon family to death in their home. They are Yosef Salomon, 70, and two of his children: Chaya Salomon, 46, and Eyal Salomon, 36.
 
The erroneous captions regarding an alleged West Bank revenge attack wrongly referred to “the killing of two Israeli settlers from the Solomon family” and added: “An assailant broke into a home in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank on July 21 and stabbed four Israelis, with two dying from their wounds, the army said.” A sample of the erroneous captions as they originally appeared follows:
 
 
Palestinians from the village of Umm Safa, west of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, check a vehicle that was set ablaze on August 9, 2017 after Israeli settlers reportedly vandalised the Palestinian village calling for vengeance for the killing of two Israeli settlers from the Solomon family. An assailant broke into a home in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank on July 21 and stabbed four Israelis, with two dying from their wounds, the army said.
 
 
Palestinians from the village of Umm Safa, west of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, check a vehicle that was set ablaze on August 9, 2017 after Israeli settlers reportedly vandalised the Palestinian village calling for vengeance for the killing of two Israeli settlers from the Solomon family. An assailant broke into a home in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank on July 21 and stabbed four Israelis, with two dying from their wounds, the army said.
 
In addition, CAMERA pointed out to editors that the erroneous captions do not identify the Halamish terrorist as Palestinian, even though this is an established fact. On the other hand, the captions do refer to specifically “Israeli settlers” as reportedly responsible for today’s alleged revenge vandalism, even though the facts are not yet clear.
 
To their credit, editors commendably corrected the captions, changing the number of Halamish victims to three, casting settler responsibility for vandalism in Umm Safa as a Palestinian “accusation,” and identifying the Halamish assailant as Palestinian.
 
 
 
The corrected caption states:

Palestinians from the village of Umm Safa, west of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, check a vehicle that was set ablaze on August 9, 2017. Palestinians accuse Israeli settlers of the arson attack on the vehicle in revenge for the stabbing of four Israeli settlers from the Salomon family by a 19-year-old Palestinian assailant on July 21, 2017, which left three of them dead.

Moreover, AFP provided its clients with the following extensive instructions regarding the corrected captions:

The erroneous mention[s] appearing in the metadata of this photo by Abbas Momani has been modified in AFP systems in the following manner: [Palestinians from the village of Umm Safa, west of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, check a vehicle that was set ablaze on August 9, 2017. Palestinians accuse Israeli settlers of the arson attack on the vehicle in revenge for the stabbing of four Israeli settlers from the Salomon family by a 19-year-old Palestinian assailant on July 21, 2017, which left three of them dead.] Instead of [Palestinians from the village of Umm Safa, west of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, check a vehicle that was set ablaze on August 9, 2017 after Israeli settlers reportedly vandalised the Palestinian village calling for vengeance for the killing of two Israeli settlers from the Solomon family. An assailant broke into a home in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank on July 21 and stabbed four Israelis, with two dying from their wounds, the army said.] Please immediately remove the erroneous mention[s] from all of your online services and delete it (them) from your servers. If you have been authorized by AFP to distribute it (them) to third parties, please ensure that the same actions are carried out by them. Failure to promptly comply with these instructions will entail liability on your part for any continued or post notification usage. Therefore we thank you very much for all your attention and prompt action. We are sorry for the inconvenience

For additional AFP corrections prompted by CAMERA, please see here.

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