Rabbi Leo Dee, who lost his wife and two of his daughters in a terror attack in the Jordan Valley in early April, released a statement on Wednesday clarifying the situation between him and CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, who drew ire from Jewish media after referring to the attack as a “shootout.”
On April 10, she interviewed Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh. During the interview, she said: “We have a young 15-year-old Palestinian boy who’s been shot and killed by security — Israeli security forces. We also have the mother of two sisters, Israeli British sisters. They were — they were killed in a shootout, and now the mother has died of her injury — injuries.”
In Amanpour’s on-air apology, issued more than a week after pro-Israel news outlet HonestReporting brought it to the public’s attention, Amanpour said: “On April 10, I referred to the murders of an Israeli family: Lucy, Maia and Rina Dee, the wife and daughters of Rabbi Leo Dee. I misspoke and said they were killed in a ‘shootout’ instead of a shooting. I have written to Rabbi Leo Dee to apologize and make sure that he knows that we apologize for any further pain that may have caused him.”
Legal action and dialogue
Rabbi Dee announced on Sunday evening that he was considering pursuing a $1.3 billion lawsuit against Amanpour and CNN. In his Wednesday statement, he explained: “Christiane’s false reporting caused my family unimaginable pain and suffering at a time when we could least bear it.”
Of Amanpour’s public apology, Dee said: “I am grateful to Christiane for her apology. It takes courage for a renowned journalist to admit before a global audience that they had uttered such a dishonorable falsehood. But as a grieving husband and father, I must state emphatically that it did not go far enough.”
The family of Maia and Rina Dee, seen outside thier home in Efrat, ahead of the two sisters funeral in Efrat on April 09, 2023. (credit: GERSHON ELINSON/FLASH90)He drew attention to the fact that Amanpour still used the term “shooting”. Calling the attack a “shooting” would be like saying that the victims of the Al Quaeda attack on New York City on September 11, 2001 “died in a fire rather than a barbarous act of mass murder,” Dee said.
Rabbi Dee also noted that the public apology came only after he threatened to sue, and that he does not want to take the issue to court if it can be handled privately.
“I am currently attempting to set up a meeting between me and [Warner Bros Discovery Chairman and CEO David] Zaslav,” Dee explained, “where I hope to bring my concerns to him about CNN’s reporting, not just about my own family but about the people of Israel in general, and the more than 100 million Arab slaves in regimes around the middle east that have no freedom of speech, of religion or of voting.”
He also emphasized that his issue was not with Arabs or Muslims – it was with “Hamas terrorists, funded by Iran” – and concluded his statement with a direct address to Zaslav.
“I appeal to Mr. Zaslav and CNN’s sense of decency and humanity to simply report the truth about the State of Israel, the only free democracy in the region, and to support the establishment of the same democratic freedoms and security for over 100 million Arabs that Americans and Europeans take for granted as part of their daily lives.”
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