Aussie editor apologizes for headline accusing Israel of ‘cruel apartheid’

SYDNEY, Australia (JTA) – The editor of the Weekend Australian newspaper apologized to the Jewish community for a headline that accused Israel of “cruel apartheid.”

Nick Cater, editor of the Australian broadsheet, said this week that the headline to a story in the May 5 issue — titled “Living under the cloud of Israel’s cruel apartheid” — should not have been published.

Cater told the Australian Jewish News that the incident was “deeply embarrassing” because of the “offensive nature” of the words used in the headline.

Peter Wertheim, chief executive of The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, wrote in a letter published in Monday’s Australian newspaper that the headline was “an affront to those who endured the real apartheid.”

The Australian newspaper is owned by News Corp., run by Rupert Murdoch, and has been strongly supportive of Israel, which Cater described as “a democratic nation surrounded by hostile neighbors.”