“Jewish attack not a surprise” - part II

Persuant to this blogpost:

This and this:

Excalibur offers an apology:


On March 19, 2008, Excalibur published a controversial article in the Opinions section under the headline “Jewish attack not a surprise” about the school shooting at Mercaz Harav school in Jerusalem where eight students were killed.

As the editors of this newspaper understood it, this article attempted to posit an explanation for why the school was targeted from the alleged perspective of the Palestinian population. At no point did Excalibur believe the article was offering a justification for murder. However, we know many people have been upset by the perceived meaning of the article and by misrepresentations in the article itself.

Therefore, Excalibur would like to apologize for printing a headline that was not reflective of the article or the attack itself, for misrepresenting the ages of the school’s students as older than they were, for implying that all students of the school – instead of only some – go on to serve in the Israel Defense Forces, for misrepresenting a quotation by former Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and for any unfair ideological attributions to the school and its students and members. We apologize for any hurt these errors have caused.

We hope to continue encouraging debate on issues that push boundaries and challenge our readers, but will make all efforts to ensure fairness, accuracy and truth in all our content.

Excalibur would also like to thank all those who contacted us to express their concerns about this issue and we encourage our readers to visit our website at www.excal.on.ca to read all the Letters to the Editor.