MSNBC reporter Ayman Mohyeldin reporting from the scene of an attempted stabbing attack in Jerusalem. Photo: Screenshot.

A private petition calling on NBC Universal News Group, which owns MSNBC, to fire a reporter covering Israel has been gathering signatures and momentum, Israeli news website nrg reported on Monday.

The petition, launched by New Yorker Ben Lieblich, is demanding Ayman Mohyeldin’s dismissal from the network, due to his coverage of a terrorist attack in Jerusalem last Friday.

In his report, Mohyeldin claimed that Israeli police had killed an unarmed Palestinian man.

In fact, police had responded to an attempted stabbing of Israeli Border Police officers guarding the Damascus Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem.

When 20-year-old Hebron resident Basel Bessam Sidr charged at the soldiers with a knife, he was shot on the spot.

Reporting from the scene of the attack, where he claimed his crew had perfect visibility, Mohyeldin essentially asserted that the Sidr had been unarmed. Even Jose Diaz-Balart, the anchor in the MSNBC studio receiving the live report, challenged Mohyeldin’s account, as footage emerged of the attacker wielding a knife.

Mohyeldin then stammered as he tried to explain that what he had meant was that no weapons were found on Sidr’s body after he was shot.