An Irish Times editorial seems to be trying to set a record with how many journalism errors can be made in one article.
It discusses the sensitivity of the Temple Mount, saying that the compound is “Known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif, site of Islam’s third-holiest shrine but venerated also by Jews as the location of their biblical temple”- but without actually stating that it is the holiest site in Judaism.
It goes on to skip over crucial historical facts of why the current Temple Mount status quo is what it is, vaguely saying: “Situated on land occupied by Israel in 1967, the Jewish state maintains security control but Jordan is religious custodian.”
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What actually happened was that in the 1967 Six Day War, Israel liberated the Temple Mount – the holiest site in Judaism – from Jordan, which occupied it. Seeking to reduce tensions with the Muslim world, Israel made the ultimate concession and handed administrative control to the Islamic Waqf, yielding sovereignty and the right of Jewish prayer on the site. Israel has maintained security on the Temple Mount and that has been the “status quo” for the past 50 years.
But it seems that historical facts and chronology don’t matter to the Irish Times.
The Irish Times falsely claims that the Second Intifada was triggered by Ariel Sharon visiting the Temple Mount in 2000, yet Yasser Arafat’s own wife admitted he had planned the intifada long before that – Sharon’s Temple Mount visit was just an excuse.
The editorial then makes the outrageous claim that “The latest violence began on Friday, when Israeli security forces shot three Palestinian demonstrators dead.”
First of all the “latest violence” began one week BEFORE that, with a terror attack at the Temple Mount in which three Arabs shot dead two Israeli Druze police officers. Second, the “three Palestinian demonstrators” were not peacefully protesting; they were involved in violent riots, calling for the massacre of Jews, and throwing deadly rocks and Molotov cocktails at Israeli forces.
https://www.facebook.com/HonestReporting/videos/10155619305164954/
The Irish Times then callously implies some sort of equivalence between the deaths of the rioters, and of three Israelis who were murdered by a terrorist in their home while celebrating a new grandchild over Friday night dinner:
On the same day, a Palestinian stabbed three Israelis in the occupied West Bank after pledging on Facebook to heed “al-Aqsa’s call.”
The Irish Times not only implies equivalence here, but by saying the attack was in the “occupied West Bank” downplays the horrific details of it, and suggests that maybe it wouldn’t have happened if the settlers weren’t were they shouldn’t have been – on “occupied” land – in the first place.
Only later does the Irish Times mention the initial shooting attack on the Temple Mount that led to the metal detectors being installed.
The editorial states that Israel must remove the metal detectors, that “that compromise is the only way of restoring calm.” But by saying this, the Irish Times absolves the Palestinians of responsibility for their own actions, and ignores that the violence began before the metal detectors.
The Palestinian incitement and violence relating to the Temple Mount has been going on for years, as have the lies that Israel is nefariously plotting to change the status quo and destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque.
This video gives some idea of the lies that Palestinians are fed by their leaders and media:
https://www.facebook.com/103473109738311/videos/vb.103473109738311/1422678237817785/?type=2&theater
The Irish Times wants “a deal that ends the bloodshed,” but when the media downplay and excuse Palestinian violence, lies, and incitement, this only adds fuel to the fire and emboldens Palestinian terrorists.
In 1967 Israel opted for compromise, but this evidently only encouraged the false Palestinian narrative that Jews have no historical or religious connection to the Temple Mount or even the land of Israel itself. Israeli restraint was seen as proof of its illegitimacy.
And that is still the story today. It’s not about metal detectors; they are just another excuse for Palestinians to delegitimize Israel and incite terrorism and religious war against the Jews. Israel, on the other hand, is not looking to change the status quo at the Temple Mount, because Israel isn’t looking for war – only for security.
These are the facts that the Irish Times, and many other international media, have been ignoring all along.
Read more:
Stories I’d Like to See: Background on the Temple Mount Troubles
