While Palestinian mobs set synogogues on fire, a recent Knight Ridder story entitled ”Palestinians besiege buildings hours after Israelis leave Gaza’ included this quote at the top of the article:
“I want to destroy everything here as they did the Al Aqsa mosque,” said Mahmoud Malahi…. “I want to destroy everything here. It’s a symbol of occupation. Destroying it is a symbol of Islam.”
Never has Israel intentionally, or even (to the best of our knowledge) unintentionally caused harm to Muslim places of worship. The Al Aqsa mosque is doing quite well atop the Temple Mount, as Israel guarantees freedom of religion and makes holy places accessible to peoples of all faiths.
Why did the Knight Ridder reporter and editor allow this utterly false statement to go unchallenged?
UPDATE 9/13: The Knight Ridder story linked above has been replaced with another, but the original is still available here.
UPDATE: A similar quote appeared in an Associated Press dispatch:
“They (Israelis) destroyed our homes and our mosques. Today it is our turn to destroy theirs,” said a man in Neve Dekalim who gave his name only as Abu Ahmed.
