Israeli reporter suspended after false story on Disney abduction

An Israeli reporter was suspended after reporting on an unfounded story that an Israeli girl was briefly abducted at Disney World in Orlando, Fla.

Sivan Cohen of Israel’s Channel 10 had reported during the April 29 news broadcast that a 9-year-old Israeli girl was taken from her parents and later found using security camera tapes in a bathroom stall drugged and with her head shaved. Cohen said the incident, which occurred over Passover, “sounds like an urban legend.”

The station confirmed on the next day’s evening news that the story was false and that Cohen had been “misled” by a source — one of the girl’s parents.

Disney officials did not confirm the story. — jta