Misrepresenting Israel's historic roots

Take a look at this photograph and the accompanying caption below it from this week’s token pro-Israel article by Jeremy Sharon entitled “Israel’s historic roots are real“:

Notice how the caption undermines any Jewish claim to the Cave of the Patriarchs by giving the impression that the building was constructed as the Al-Ibrahimi mosque which the Jews are trying to reclaim by calling it something else. (h/t PetraMB for spotting this)
This couldn’t be farther from the truth. As Sharon points out in his article:

[T]he shrine is mentioned in the Bible and has been a focus of Jewish pilgrimage for more than 3,000 years. It is Judaism’s second holiest site and is central to Jewish national identity as the burial place of the people’s three forefathers.

And the site only first came to be a mosque around a 1000 years ago.  What is more, from 1267 until 1967, Jews were forbidden entry and not allowed past the seventh step on a staircase outside the building.
In fact, the manipulation by the Guardian is very telling for if you look at the Wikipedia entry on the Cave of the Patriarchs, it describes it in the exact opposite terms from the Guardian:

The Cave of the Patriarchs or the Cave of Machpelah (Hebrew: מערת המכפלה, Me’arat HaMachpela, Trans. “Cave of the Double Tombs”; Arabic: المغارة‎ Al Magharah, “the Cave”) is a series of subterranean caves located in a complex called by Muslims the Sanctuary of Abraham or Ibrahimi Mosque (Arabic: الحرم الإبراهيمي‎, About this sound Al-Haram Al-Ibrahimi (help·info)). [emphasis added]

In describing the unwillingness to accept and acknowledge the deep-seated historical roots of the Jewish people in the region, Sharon explains that:

The implication is that the Cave of the Patriarchs has nothing to do with the Jewish people and the Israeli government is fabricating history for political ends.

How ironic that in the very same article that this photo and caption appears, the Guardian provides stark illustration of the very problem that Sharon seeks to highlight.

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