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Why Is the BBC Using Partisan and Inflammatory Palestinian Language?
(Jewish Chronicle-UK) Hadar Sela - The rallying cry of "al-Aqsa is in danger" produced an 11-day war in May 2021 that was accompanied by violent rioting in some Israeli cities. Just last month it curated violence in Jerusalem which was the topic of international media coverage. A significant aspect of Palestinian efforts involves terminology. All Jews visiting the Temple Mount are "settlers" who are "storming" the site, and the Jewish temples never existed there. Until 2014, the BBC followed its own style guide: the site should be called Temple Mount, with audiences also being informed that it is known to Muslims as "Haram al-Sharif." Then the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) published a "media advisory" informing foreign journalists of its "concern over the use of the inaccurate term 'Temple Mount' to refer to the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound in Jerusalem." Following the PLO document, CAMERA UK began documenting changes in the wording used by the BBC. The term "al-Aqsa Mosque compound" was employed with increasing frequency to describe the whole site. The use of that terminology resulted in BBC audiences being told that al-Aqsa Mosque was "sacred to Jews." BBC Arabic, in its reporting on rioting on the Temple Mount, claimed that "settlers" are allowed by the Israeli police "to get inside al-Aqsa Mosque" and portrayed Jews visiting their holiest site as "storming" it. The writer is co-editor of CAMERA UK.