New Jersey Jewish newspaper apologises for 'shooting Palestinians' joke

The Jewish Link, a publication dedicated to North Jersey’s Jewish community, published a piece headlined "100,000 Palestinians shot by Israeli soldiers", which doubled as a play on words referring to those who received Covid-19 vaccines, reports by NorthJersey.com stated.

"We apologize for our news brief… It was offensive, in poor taste, and we regret it," the outlet said in a statement published on Thursday.

The Teaneck-based outlet received backlash after the article was published on February 25 and was inserted in the section of the paper celebrating a Jewish holiday.

The New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and American Muslims for Palestine of New Jersey called for the paper to apologise immediately.

"Suggesting the systematic murder of 100,000 people of an oppressed minority will never make for good comedy. Israeli soldiers shooting Palestinians is not a joke. It is reality. A reality I am afraid the Jewish Link is all too comfortable with," said Selaedin Maksut, the excutive director of CAIR-NJ.

"Jokes about killing would never be entertained let alone published in an article had they been aimed at any other minority demographic."

Read more: Is the ICC the new frontier of Israeli exceptionalism?

Wassim Kanaan, the vice chairman of AMP-NJ, added that the apology was not enough: "This step is the first step; however, in order to rectify this issue, there must be robust and honest conversations within the communities that Jewish Link serves about the reality of Palestinian day-to-day experiences and the colonization of Palestine as a whole," Kanaan said.

"AMP-NJ is committed to contributing to the conversation."

Israel has occupied the West Bank illegally since 1967, committing varied and numerous crimes against Palestinian civilians.

Its forces have been slammed for using disproportionate force against local Palestinians, with the UN stating that Tel Aviv may have committed war crimes through its heavy-handed response to the protests.

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