Paper mistakes phone company for terrorist's hometown

France’s Liberation invents Arab village of ‘Bezek’ while reporting on killer who worked for telecommunications group

An unfortunate translation mishap in recent days led one of France’s leading newspapers to name Israel’s largest telecommunications company as the hometown of a Palestinian terrorist.

Alaa Abu Jamal, an East Jerusalem resident, killed one man and wounded another on Tuesday when he rammed his car into a crowd in Jerusalem. He then stepped out of the crashed vehicle and attempted to stab the wounded with a machete before being shot dead by a security guard.

Abu Jamal was later revealed to have been an employee of Israeli phone and internet company Bezeq. The killer’s employment by an Israeli company was mentioned in many news stories and was picked up by Liberation.

However, the French paper mistook the terrorist’s place of work for his place of residence, a town it named “Bezek.” An intrepid newsman went so far as to draw up a map of Bezek’s location, electing to place it just west of Jerusalem.

The mistake was reportedly fixed some time after publication.