The headline in question.
BBC's Jerusalem attack headline sparks criticism
British media outlet acknowledges inaccuracies in headline allegedly biased toward Palestinian attacker, but falls short of apologizing.
A BBC headline sparked sharp criticism from Israelis and Jews around the world on Saturday in the wake of an attack in Jerusalem's Old City
that resulted in the death of two Israelis at the hands of a 19-year-old Palestinian.
"Palestinian shot dead after Jerusalem attack kills two," read the original headline, prompting accusations of bias in favor of the Palestinian attacker, whose death was the main focus of the headline despite the fact that he had killed two Israeli civilians.
In response to a Ynetnews inquiry, a BBC spokesperson admitted "that the headline didn't accurately reflect the events, nor the details reported in our online story," but fell short of an apology.
Instead, the spokesperson pointed out that the BBC had changed the headline "of our own accord."
Indeed, the headline was quickly replaced, but the second version was hardly more welcomed by Jewish readers. "Israelis killed in Old City 'by Palestinian,'" read the new headline, suggesting that the Palestinian identity of the attacker was strictly a report in Israeli media and not a fact that the BBC would stand behind.
The headline was changed again as the story developed and finally rested on "Israelis killed in Jerusalem, Palestinians banned from Old City."
