Board demands apology over BBC tweet about Israeli teen killed in attack

The Board of Deputies has demanded an apology over a BBC World tweet about the death of an Israeli teenager killed in a bomb blast.

The bomb detonated at a nature reserve near the Dolev settlement in the West Bank, wounding the teen’s brother and father – in an attack Israeli authorities said was Palestinian.

A tweet sent by @BBCWorld at around 12:20pm today contained a web link to a news story about the girl’s death, with the accompanying words: “Israeli teenage girl killed in bomb attack near Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank.”

In a statement, Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies, said: “It’s an appalling comment in the tweet. Murder is murder and the BBC should know better than to link the bombing of an innocent teenage girl, when hiking, to the political situation in the West Bank. They should apologise and amend the tweet.”

A spokesperson for the BBC said “this is a factual tweet which includes the location of the girl’s killing”.