|
Trending Topics
|
Telegraph Report on Minister's Temple Mount Visit Riddled with Distortions
(CAMERA-UK) Adam Levick - The headline of a Telegraph article on Tuesday referred to an Israeli "minister's mosque visit." Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir did not visit the mosque, but only the greater al-Aqsa Mosque Compound, known to Jews (and most visitors) as the Temple Mount. The article includes the following: "When Ariel Sharon paid a controversial visit to the revered site as opposition leader in 2000, it led to outbreaks of violence and protests which then spiraled into the Second Intifada, a mass Palestinian uprising against Israel." Yet Palestinian leaders have since admitted that Sharon's visit was only a pretext for preplanned violence. Blaming Sharon's brief visit to the Mount for thousands of subsequent Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians, over the span of five years, is a colossal analytical error. It erases Palestinian agency from the equation: implying that terrorists, and the PA leaders who facilitated their attacks, had no choice but to respond violently to Sharon's visit. The article quoted "the Kingdom of Jordan which said it 'condemns in the severest of terms the storming of the Aqsa mosque and violating its sanctity.'" The "Jews storming the mosque" lie is frequently peddled in the Arab world to describe any peaceful visit of Jews to the Temple Mount - a narrative which is often designed to incite Palestinian violence.