Manchester paper apologises for ‘inaccurate’ Jerusalem terror attack headline

The Manchester Evening News has “apologised unreservedly” for headlining a report on the murder of a Israeli by an armed terrorist: “Palestinian shot dead after holy site killing.”

There was anger after the publication printed an article on Monday covering the killing of Eliyahu Kay in Jerusalem, which it now admits was not written in “an accurate and balanced way.”

Israeli forces shot and killed the perpetrator 42-year-old Fadi Abu Shkhaidem, following the attack in which four other people were injured.

The victim of Sunday’s gun attack in Jerusalem’s Old City was later identified as the grandson of South Hampstead synagogue’s senior rabbi Shlomo Levin. Kay, 26, sustained a head injury and later died in hospital. He had recently moved to Israel from South Africa, and his funeral took place on Monday.

The Manchester Evening News tweeted: “In today’s print MEN we carried a headline on the international page following a deadly attack in Jerusalem. We recognise the headline did not reflect the story in an accurate and balanced way. We apologise unreservedly for any upset caused.”

Sharing a clipping of the piece, The Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester and Region said it was “appalled by the headline in the MEN following the deadly terrorist attack in Jerusalem at the weekend. The framing of the headline and the subsequent article recklessly fails to reflect the tragic incident. We have written to the editor to request an urgent meeting.”

Meanwhile, Board of Deputies President Marie van der Zyl said: “The incident in question saw a Hamas terrorist kill one Israeli civilian and wound four others, before being neutralised by the Israeli police. The Manchester Evening News headline is a highly misleading inversion of what took place and we hope a prominent correction will be published.”