Israel to launch complaint to CNN over statement that Dee family victims were ‘killed in a shootout’
Foreign Minister Cohen offers Rabbi Leo Dee an envoy position to represent Jewish communities around the world
The Israeli consulate in Atlanta, Georgia will make a formal complaint to CNN following a broadcast in which CNN host Christiane Amanpour stated that Dee family members were “killed in a shootout.”
In her show, Amanpour said, “The mother and two Israel-British sisters – they were killed in a shootout.” Use of the term shootout implies both sides were firing. However, the terrorists who shot and killed Lea, Maia and Rina in early April did not encounter any armed resistance from the victims.
Amanpour’s statement was not the first incident of journalistic bias regarding the Dee family shooting. The BBC network also received criticism for its reporting on the incident, which described the car “crashing after coming under fire” without referencing the incident as a terror attack.
Amanpour has a history of biased statements regarding Israel. The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), maintains an entire page dedicated to Amanpour’s anti-Israel bias in reporting, with documented examples dating back to 1996.
Rabbi Leo Dee, husband to Lea and father to Maia and Rina, told HonestReporting that he is demanding an apology from CNN and Amanpour.
HonestReporting, a non-governmental organization that "monitors the media for bias against Israel," also published a post to social media calling on Amanpour to apologize.
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen on Wednesday announced he had offered Dee the position of Special Envoy to Jewish communities around the world. Cohen said hearing Dee’s call for unity during his wife’s eulogy moved him.
“I heard his eulogy for his wife, and you could not help but be moved by it,” Cohen said. “Everyone who heard him had to feel the same way.”
During the eulogy, Dee spoke of the unity the nation feels during tragedy.
“When a simple, quiet family in Efrat is devastated, the whole country hurts,” he said. “And when a family in Tel Aviv is devastated, the whole country hurts. There’s no greater proof of our unity.”
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
