Terror Attack On Temple Mount: Druze Are Palestinians For Starters
I wonder if the Druze of Israel appreciate being adopted by the enemies of Israel and made out to be one and the same with them. The anti-Israel news website, Ma’an, thinks they would be okay with it and begins its report on this morning’s (14 July) terror attack thus:
Three Palestinian citizens of Israel and two police officers — also Palestinian citizens of Israel — were killed during an armed confrontation in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem early on Friday morning. [emphasis added]
These two police officers were Druze citizens of Israel. I doubt that the Druze citizens of Israel would agree to being referred to as “Palestinians”.
I also find it funny that they call what happened an “armed confrontation” as if it was something other than a terror attack.
The one thing Ma’an got right is when they reported that the terrorists opened the attack against the Israeli security officers.
Their report describes how the three terrorists (well, they did not actually call them terrorists) on a motorbike opened fire on the border police “at point blank range” from Lions’ Gate and then rushed off to take cover in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. That would be about 500 meters away from where the attack began, according to the image on Googlemaps (the black line shows the path that would be taken from Lions’ Gate to the Temple Mount compound).
In contrast, Times of Israel reported that the terrorists walked out from the courtyard toward Lions’ Gate, began shooting and then ran back to the mosque area. It may be a small point, but this discrepancy may be an attempt on Ma’an‘s part to cover up an important issue: If the terrorists came from inside the compound, it shows that they were able to get weapons into the Temple Mount area. If they came in shooting from outside, as Ma’an writes, then that contradicts this point and would not implicate the Waqf in the security failure. As it turns out, they began from inside the compound, as their selfies taken before the attack show. (Perhaps the possibility of complicity on the part of Waqf security is behind Abbas’ expression of regret regarding this terror attack.)
It is interesting how Ma’an relates to the following video:
They write:
A video published by several Israeli news outlets seemingly showed one of the Palestinians lying on the ground in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, then jumping to his feet as Israeli officers approached him, only to then be shot at close range and fall to the ground. [emphasis added]
There can be no doubt about what is happening in this video (taken by an Arab witness). Ma’an‘s hesitation to appear to accept as valid this video evidence of an attempted stabbing by supposedly neutralized terrorists stands in stark contrast to the numerous times anti-Israeli propagandists present as absolute truth videos that are later shown to have been set-ups (for example, here) filming Israeli soldiers or “settlers” in what appear to be compromising situations. This is commonly referred to as Pallywood.
Ma’an goes on to quote Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, interviewed in Ha’aretz:
The attack in Jerusalem is a natural reaction to Israeli terror and the desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque . . .
Jews defending ourselves is considered “Israeli terror” and we desecrate the mosque. Storing weapons in the mosque and thereby turning it into an armory is not desecration of what is supposedly a Holy Moslem site? Once a site is used for storing arms, it becomes a legitimate military target.
Israeli security forces closed Al-Aqsa for Moslem prayer today for the first time since 2014, when Yehuda Glick was shot in the compound. Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, grand mufti of Jerusalem, told Ma’an:
We insist on reaching Al-Aqsa mosque and performing prayers there. The occupation preventing us from praying marks an assault against our right to worship in this pure Islamic mosque.
If this is a “pure” Islamic mosque, perhaps the mufti should consider making sure weapons are not brought into it and attacks against Israelis are not allowed on the Temple Mount.
Ma’an concludes their article by stating that the terrorist attack on Temple Mount took place at the same time as Israeli security forces killed a young Palestinian Arab. We are given no circumstances for the death of the 18 year-old other than that it occurred during a security raid in Duheishe Refugee Camp near Bethlehem. Guess they have to try to tie the terrorist attack to something concrete to find a way to justify it, eh?
I would have thought they would have used this opportunity to do a more effective job of vilifying Israel. Co-founder of the electronic intifada makes a better stab at it, if you pardon the pun:
As usual @EUinIsrael will condemn killing of occupation combatants & be silent about Israeli murder of 3 civilians in Jenin, Bethlehem camps
— Ali Abunimah (@AliAbunimah) July 14, 2017
But I find that rather parve as well.
Feature image: screenshot from video in article.
