Rahat mayor seeks media apology for false report

False report in Israeli media attributed mass murder at Beersheba bank to 2 residents of Beduin city in the Negev.

By BEN HARTMAN
Policeman at Beersheba shooting scene 370 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Policeman at Beersheba shooting scene 370
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Residents of the Beduin city of Rahat in the Negev reacted with anger to false reports in the Israeli media attributing a mass murder in Beersheba on Monday to two residents of the city, and are asking for a public apology, Rahat Mayor Faiz Abu-Seheban said Monday.
“There is a lot of anger in the city because they blamed the city of Rahat and its residents for this despicable act that we condemn unequivocally.”
Abu-Seheban said he sent a letter to Channel 2 and Channel 10 on Monday evening demanding they issue a public apology for the report, but said he has not received a reply.
He said if they don’t get an apology, they will take steps of their own choosing, including possibly a one-hour strike in the city’s public school system.
“The Israeli media is always full of stereotypes against the Beduin community, when all we want is to live as good neighbors here on our land,” he said.
MK Ahmed Tibi (United Arab List- Ta’al), in a written statement on Monday, said the automatic blame that the Israeli media attributed to an Arab in the shooting in a Beersheba bank that killed four was racist. The suspect in the shooting was an Israeli Jew.
“The Israeli media’s automatic [assignment of] blame to Arabs in Rahat for the horrible killing in Beersheba is stereotypical racism of those who hoped that the murderer would be an Arab.”
He added that such actions worsen hatred of Arabs, and he called for an immediate apology.