A recent article published by the Associated Press (AP) news agency features a spectacularly one-sided explanation of the tensions surrounding the Temple Mount. The article features subtle vilification of Jews who wish to visit the Temple Mount, implying that Jews who wish to do so are the sole perpetrators of tension when it comes to the Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa mosque compound.
Jewish Connections to Temple Mount Downplayed
The AP article, written by Areej Hazboun and Joseph Krauss, includes a boilerplate explanation of eastern Jerusalem, describing it thus:
The Palestinians view settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem as the main obstacle to peace, and most of the international community considers them to be illegal.”
They later add that, “Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be its capital.”
That, however, is not the whole story. While Israel and the Palestinians are indeed locked in a dispute over territory, with much of the world siding against Israel, Jewish claims to Jerusalem, specifically the Temple Mount cannot be reduced to a phrase as brief as “Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be its capital.”
Left unmentioned is the vital background that this disputed territory encompasses Judaism’s holiest site, the Temple Mount. Moreover, Jerusalem has only ever been the capital of a sovereign Jewish state.
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Worse, Hazboun and Krauss describe the Temple Mount, a site notable in part for tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, in decidedly one-sided terms (emphasis added):
The site is a raw nerve in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and tensions have soared in recent years as religious and nationalist Jews have visited in ever-larger numbers, escorted by the Israeli police.”
Hazboun and Krauss’s description puts Muslim claims first, stating that the Al-Aqsa mosque is the third-holiest site in Islam, and only afterwards goes on to say that it is the holiest site for Jews. Given that the site is far more important for Jews, and that it originally was a Jewish site, surely the order should be reversed?
Jews Alone Held Responsible for Soaring Tensions
Additionally, if the foundation of APs argument is that people should have undeniable access to the holy sites of their respective religions, should it not be arguing in favor of the Jews wishing to visit the Temple Mount? Why are Jews visiting their holiest site portrayed as troublemakers whose presence in recent years means “tensions have soared?”
AP calls the Temple Mount a “raw nerve in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” and explains that it is a source of “tension” as more and more Jews wish to visit the site.
If the writers of this article wanted to discuss “tension” fostered by two groups laying claim to the site, perhaps they should also be discussing the fact that religious preachers incite the masses, and that the area has been used to store arms and as a launching pad for attacks against Jews and Israeli armed forces.
The list of such attacks goes back decades. For example, in 1990, thousands of Arabs hurled rocks and bottles at Jews praying at the Western Wall at a time when the plaza below was filled with Jewish pilgrims. In 2016, Christian tourists were attacked by rock-throwing Arabs near the Al Aqsa mosque. In 2017, three Arab-Israeli men leaving the Temple Mount opened fire on Israel border police, killing two, and injuring two others. And in 2020, terrorists approached the officers stationed near one of the gates to the Temple Mount and opened fire, injuring one.
These are just some of the more high-profile incidents. There have been literally hundreds of smaller-scale, undocumented assaults.
Another source of tensions worth mentioning is the automatic negative reactions Palestinians have to people who visit the Temple Mount with Israeli security escorts. Last month, a delegation of Emirati officials visited the site, only to be met with heckling from nearby Palestinians. The visit was coordinated with the Waqf (the Jordanian religious body that oversees the mosque compound) and was entirely safe, respectful, and legal. Ikrema Sabri, the imam who leads Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa stated that the Palestinian onlookers were likely unaware of the arrangement and accredited the heckling to the fact that the officials were entering with Israeli security. This speaks volumes about Palestinian intolerance of Jewish self-determination not only to the Temple-Mount/Al-Aqsa compound, but to Jerusalem and Israel as a whole.
Failure to Detail Palestinian Incitement Against Jews on Temple Mount
In addition to the above, AP also fails to mention the Palestinian leadership’s haranguing of Jewish pilgrims and incitement against Jews visiting Judaism’s holiest site.
For example, a recent visit to the Temple Mount by Jerusalem city council member Dan Illouz was repeatedly characterized by Arabic-language media as “storm[ing] the Al Aqsa mosque.” (See graphic below of multiple news agencies using inflammatory language.)
This is a blatant falsehood; Illouz, a religious Jew who is careful not to enter certain areas of the Temple Mount deemed to be too holy by Jewish law, did not set foot in the mosque, much less take it by force.
In summary, by attributing the rising tensions and violence surrounding the site to Jewish pilgrims, and them alone, AP’s account amounts to victim blaming, one-sided understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and misleading media coverage of the facts.
This article was written by Sara Goldstein, who is with HonestReporting as an intern in 2020.
