[Editor’s Note: The writer is an essayist for thealgemeiner.com]
It is fascinating, and frightening, to see how Palestinian Arab lies are accepted by the mainstream media.
From Reuters, the British news service, adding background information to an article about recent violence:
“A campaign of stabbings, shootings and car-rammings by Palestinians has killed 19 Israelis and a U.S. citizen since the start of October. Israeli forces have killed 109 Palestinians, around two-thirds of whom the army identified as assailants. Palestinians are frustrated at the failure of long-running peace efforts with Israel and its 48-year occupation of the West Bank. Many sympathize with Hamas calls for Israel’s destruction.
“The bloodshed has also been fueled by Muslim agitation over stepped-up Israeli access to Jerusalem’s al Aqsa mosque complex, which many Jews revere as a vestige of their biblical temples.”
Exactly how has Israel “stepped up” access to the site compared to 2013? 1998?
They haven’t, but Arab media outlets have been plastering articles about every single visit by Jews to the area on their front pages for months as a reason to incite violence. It has worked. The articles often report supposed Israeli plans to build a Temple or divide the site so that only Jews can ascend at certain times. All of them have been false.
There has been no increased Jewish access to the Temple Mount. But there has been a marked increase in Muslims violently opposing any Jews visiting peacefully.
Recently, the head of the “Arab Parliament” condemned Jews visiting the Temple Mount on Sunday, claiming that their purpose was to provoke the feelings of Muslims worldwide and that any Jews on the Temple Mount were pouring fuel on the fire of Arab resentment. This incitement is constant in Arab media and governmental pronouncements.
Reuters gives it credence.
The supposed Israeli plans to take over the complex is the entire stated reason for the stabbings and shootings and stonings and rammings. Nothing about “frustration” with the peace process. It is called the Al Aqsa Intifada in Arab media. And it is based on lies.
But Reuters never will say that.
The writer may be contacted via http://www.algemeiner.com/2015/12/15/reuters-reports-lie-that-israel-changed-status-quo-on-temple-mount/