Yehonatan Palmer of blessed memory
Yehonatan Palmer of blessed memoryPalmer family

The IDF website features no item about the murder of baby Yonatan Palmer and his father Asher, ten days after their deaths on September 23. 

The double murder on Route 60 near Kiryat Arba took place just as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu flew to the United Nations to block the PA's statehood bid. There was sharp criticism of the IDF and Police spokesmen for what is seen as an initial cover-up of the double murder,  intended to prevent a flare-up of Jewish anger that could have embarrassed Netanyahu. 

Nationalists accused the spokesmen of insisting that the Palmers died in an accident even though they possessed evidence that pointed to a murderous drive-by rock attack.

The only mention of the murder on the site is in an interview with the Head of Central Command published four days after the double murder, in which he notes that the initial police assessment was that the Palmers died in an accident, and that this assessment has changed. He promised that an official IDF statement would be made once the police investigators announced the result of their inquiry.

No such statement has been made since then, even though police stated clearly that the Palmers were murdered and the Ministry of Defense has officially recognized the Palmers as terror victims.

The IDF website does, instead, emphasize an item in the Jordan Valley about flooding that "fostered unique cooperation between the IDF and Palestinian fire and rescue services."

"A Palestinian vegetable truck and school bus got stuck in mud and rocks at the Hamra Junction and both Israeli and Palestinian forces were called to the scene to rescue stranded people and clear the road. An IDF engineering officer said: 'There has always been cooperation between us and Palestinian rescue forces.' … Most cooperation occurs when accidents take place from time to time on Route 90."

The cooperation on Route 90, while welcome, is apparently news for the website's editors.They seem to have decided that a double murder on Route 60 is not.

Arutz Sheva has requested a reaction from the IDF Spokesman.