UK media lie begins: Jewish prayer rights activists cause Palestinian terrorism

The question of whether the recent increase in Palestinian terror attacks – which has included two lethal stabbings, and the murder of three Israelis by Palestinians who intentionally ran their vehicles into crowds of pedestrians in Jerusalem – will one day be categorized as the start of a new intifada is debatable.  

However, we can already see how the UK media will likely be framing the story if indeed the uptick in deadly attacks continue and increase: that demands by some Jews to be able to pray at the Temple Mount (the holiest site in Judaism) is responsible for the violence. 

A Nov. 6th article by the Guardian’s Peter Beaumont, following the two vehicular terror attacks, opined that “Demands for greater access have been blamed by Israelis and Palestinians for a recent increase in violent confrontations in Jerusalem”.

The Economist suggested – in an article in their print edition on Nov. 8th titled Temple Madness – that “dangerous campaign for Jewish prayer rights” is a form of “Jewish agitation” which is driving Palestinians to violence.

And, Ben Lynfield of The Independent – in a Nov. 10th report titled “Fears of new intifada: Israel is hit by wave of Palestinian violence linked to concerns over al-Aqsa mosque – was even more brazen in arguing that the recent deadly attacks on Israelis “was triggered largely by a Palestinian perception of an Israeli threat to al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, Islam’s third holiest shrine.”

There is, of course, no threat to the al-Aqsa Mosque, and Israel’s prime minister has been adamant about the need to preserve the status quo at the holy site – where Jews are allowed to visit the site, but not to pray.

But, more importantly, the Guardian, Economist and Indy all have managed to ignore the role played by official Palestinian incitement when attempting to explain the recent attacks.

Here are a just a few such examples, ignored by Beaumont, Lynfield, and the (anonymous) Economist reporter.

On Oct. 17th, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas incited against Jews who merely visit the Temple Mount, in the following speech.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49wZmRAGqj0]

Abbas’s implicit call to violence was broadcast by Palestinian TV 19 times in 3 days.

Then, on Nov. 1, Abbas wrote a “letter of encouragement and support” to the family of Moatez Hejazi, the Palestinian terrorist who tried to assassinate Yehuda Glick, referring to Hejazi a “shahid” (martyr), who “rose to heaven while defending our people’s rights and holy places.”  

Abbas’s advisor Sultan Abu Al-Einein actually encouraged more violence by praising the terrorist murderers who carried out the recent attacks on Glick (and the Israeli pedestrians in Jerusalem) as the “illustrious and blessed children” who are “saturating the land of the homeland with their pure blood”.

Additionally, following the ‘run-over’ attacks in Jerusalem by Palestinian terrorists that have claimed three lives over the past two weeks, Abbas’ Fatah movement has been “actively encouraging Palestinians to carry out more such attacks on Israelis“.

Here’s one example.

Indeed – save one report in the Times of London – the UK media has ignored widely available evidence of official Palestinian incitement by Abbas, his advisors and PA governement ministries.

Finally, you have to ask yourself: Even if the Palestinian terrorists who’ve murdered five Israelis since Oct. 22nd  – Dalia Lamkus (25), Almog Shiloni (20), Jedan Assad (38), Chaya Zissel Braun (3 months), and Karen Mosquera (22) – were to claim that the mere possibility of Jews peacefully praying at the Mount motivated them to kill their victims, would this mean that we are to blame the advocates of Jewish prayer rights for causing the attacks?

The UK media’s need to impute an Israeli causation for Palestinian violence represents another characteristic denial of Palestinian agency, in suggesting that Palestinians can’t control their impulse to engage in terror attacks on innocent civilians in response to some perceived Jewish offense.

Reasonable people can of course continue to advocate for maintaining the status quo at the Mount – for practical reasons – while still rejecting the liberal racism which insists on treating Palestinians (on a moral level) like children who can’t be expected to behave civilly and responsibly when they don’t get their way. 

Related articles

• Indy buries shooting of Yehuda Glick, focuses instead on Temple Mount closing (cifwatch.com)
• Abbas statements regarding Jerusalem (Palestinian Media Watch)
• The battle over Jerusalem and the Temple Mount (CAMERA.org)