RAI reporter calls murdered Israelis ‘hikers’ and faces death threats

Italian journalist Giovan Battista Brunori has become the target of threats and a fierce campaign by pro-Palestinian activists after describing two Israelis killed in a West Bank attack as “hikers” rather than violent settlers. Brunori, the Jerusalem correspondent for Italy’s public broadcaster RAI, was reporting on an attack near the Palestinian village of Tell in which Israeli security coordinator Benayahu Melt and IDF officer Yuval Ezra were killed after a Palestinian seized Melt’s weapon and opened fire. It was Brunori’s choice of a single word, “hikers,” that triggered the backlash. Pro-Palestinian activists and figures on the Italian left accused him of whitewashing settler violence and presenting the Israelis as innocent civilians. Brunori said the campaign quickly escalated into threats directed at him and his family.