The millionth Israeli to be vaccinated against the coronavirus was not convicted of killing anyone despite reports to the contrary on Sunday.

Following a photo op of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu with the one millionth Israeli to be vaccinated in the Arab town of Umm el-Fahm on Motzei Shabbos, Kan News reported on Sunday that the man, Muhammad Abd al Wahhab Jabarin, 66, served 20 years in jail for a double murder. Later, the report was changed to say he served 14 years for manslaughter. The report was picked up as the story of the day by almost all major Israeli media outlets.

However, on Monday, Kan News retracted its report, saying it was mistaken and Jabarin was never convicted of killing anyone. Kan apologized, explaining that two of its reporters had verified the information with multiple sources who had proven reliable in the past but they never should have published the story without receiving a response from Jabarin.

In actuality, Jabarin served time in jail for multiple criminal offenses, including smuggling weapons and armed robbery but not for manslaughter. Furthermore, although he did serve a total of 14 years in jail, he did not serve them consecutively. Instead, he was jailed for the first time in 1981 for five years and later served three additional separate sentences, with the last one ending in 1999.

“I paid my debt to society and put that all behind me,” Jabarin told Kan. “I have children and grandchildren…If people want to bash Netanyahu, they shouldn’t use me to do it.”

“I sat in jail like a million others since the establishment of the state,” Jabarin told Army Radio. “I wasn’t convicted of murder. I’ll sue whoever said that. They used me to bash the prime minister.”

YWN also apologizes to Jabarin for reporting the false information.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)