The third most holy site in Islam?

'Using the mosque as a weapons depot isn't a violation of the sanctity of the mosque. Searching for those weapons - is.'

You can read all about this at Elder of Ziyon but obviously not on the institutionally anti-Israel BBC.

38 Jews and 300,000 Muslims

Elder of Ziyon has a fascinating report on people visiting The Temple Mount in Jerusalem,

'In the past 24 hours, according to Arab media, 38 Jews visited the Temple Mount.

This is, of course, terrible. How can Jews peacefully visit their holiest site? Clearly it is a violation of Muslim rights.

Also in the past 24 hours, according to the same Islamic Waqf that zealously counts every Jew, some 300,000 Muslims visited the same site.

Yet the Muslims complain about restrictions to their freedom of religion.'

  Fascinating and the sort of imbalance in figures that the BBC should be interested in.

Hidden camera reveals: Why was a Christian activist expelled from temple mount?

This will not be shown by BBC who prefer to spread the Palestinian narrative narrative that Jews are trying to interfere with Muslims worshipping at Al Aqsa Mosque. Instead it seems that the Muslims see the whole of the Temple Mount as their mosque and thus no Jews or Christians are allowed there.

That reminds me - another Palestinian mother

Yesterday's post reminded me of some video that I have posted previously. It's of another Palestinian mother, this time one whose young son had a heart complaint and was treated free of charge in an Israeli hospital. Watch the whole video, see how she is amazed by the generosity of the Jewish people bringing presents and giving to all patients whether Jewish or Muslim but also...




Please explain how Israel can make peace with people who can have their child treated in an Israeli hospital but also say that:
"Death is natural for us, we're not afraid to die"
"It's a religious thing. It's heresy to say that Jerusalem isn't ours."
"Life is precious but not to us. We feel that life is nothing. Life isn't worth a thing. That's why we have suicide bombers. They're not afraid to die, it's natural."
"We cry out in joy and celebrate when someone becomes a shahid (martyr)"
"Life isn't precious"

Israel and Jordan strike deal on Jerusalem holy site per BBC News

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-34626425

And the deal? Israel had renewed a pledge to maintain existing rules there.

Palestine: 1840 to Now by Real Jstreets per Israellycool

Some facts about the population of Jerusalem from 1840.

In 1840, there were 5,000 Jews and 4,600 Muslims.

In 1870: 11,000 Jews and 6,500 Muslims

In 1917:  32,000 Jews and 13,500 Muslims

In 1948, when Jerusalem was divided by war and occupied by Jordan: 84,000 Jews and 40,000 Muslims.

More here http://www.israellycool.com/2015/10/19/palestine-1840-to-now/ but not on the institutionally anti-Israel BBC.

the BBC explain the causes of the Temple Mount dispute in their usual biased way

Watch this piece of video, it's 1:44 long.



Shall we give Yolande Knell's report a fisking?

The opening still is of just the Muslim site with a tiny Israeli flag fluttering beneath. Could not an overhead shot that gave a better idea of scale not have been used? A shot like the one shown at 0:45?

Both the historical and the naming explanations  are given Muslim first, Jews second and the accompanying graphic has Islam above Judaism. Some might argue that the older of the two religions should be first.

Yolande Knell starts her modern history with what happened after the 6-Day war of 1967. There's no mention of the position prior to 1948 when Jews lived across Jerusalem or 1948-1967 when the eastern part of Jerusalem was occupied by the Jordanians. The only time ever in history that Jerusalem has been split was in that period 1948-1967. When the Jordanians occupied the eastern part of Jerusalem they stopped Jews from worshipping there and destroyed synagogues. Oddly this is not something that the BBC see fit to tell their viewers.

Yolande Knell tells us that Israel occupied East Jerusalem, might not the above context have been useful?

So the evil apartheid state of Israel ceded control of the holiest site in Judaism to a Jordanian Waqf and agreed to prevent Jews from praying at their holiest site. That seems odd for a country characterised by the BBC as unreasonable, aggressive and expansionary.

What naughty Jews praying at a holy site. The Muslims see Jews praying at their holiest site as provocative? Well cry me a f***ing river, I see a Muslim mosque built on top of the site of the Jewish temple as provocative.

Many Palestinians are suspicious... what a load of bullshit, The Muslims have been trying this line since the 1920s, they know that if they claim that the Jooooos are trying to do something against the Al Aqsa then they will get the support of the Muslim world and the anti-Israel (and often anti-Semitic) West too.

Spot the imagery used for the intifada section. An heroic Palestinian youth throwing a bottle (or rock) and then five Israeli soldiers and a Land Rover. The odds are just so unfair. Imagery is important, it sets the scene and that's just what is being done here.

Yolande Knell then says that 'Most of the recent attacks have been carried out by individuals acting alone'. If 'most' have been then which have not and how does Yolande Knell know that most have not been? Has she not seen the videos encouraging such attacks put out by Fatah and Hamas?

Whilst Yolande Knell wonders what the current situation will become a split screen is shown again. On the left religious Jewish men, maybe praying, on the right weeping Muslim women - once again the image is more important than the words and the BBC know that.

Orla Guerin - incompetent or deliberately offensive

The BBC's Orla Guerin presented another biased piece of reporting on the BBC News tonight. 

What was breathtaking was her statement that the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem is sacred to both Muslims and Jews. Is this woman ignorant or being deliberately offensive? 

The Al Aqsa Mosque is not sacred to Jews. Part of the site of the mosque is built over the ruins of the Jewish Temple and so is the holiest site in Judaism. Of course the Israeli government stupidly prevents Jews from worshipping at their holiest site but allows Muslims to a) worship there and b) scream abuse at any Jew who dares to visit the site. Jews are actually prevented by Israeli police from saying any prayers at the holiest site in Judaism but it's Israel that's seen as victimising non Muslims.

I will be complaining to the BBC about this Orla Guerin report, I wonder what crock of shit response I'll get. 

Complaint lodged:

On tonight's News At Ten, Orla Guerin presented a report on the situation in Israel. During this report she said that Jerusalem's Al Aqsa mosque was sacred to both Muslims and Jews. This is factually incorect and offensive to Jews.

The Al Aqsa mosque is built on top of the site where the Jewish Temples stood before being destroyed. The site is the holiest site in Judaism but the Al Aqsa mosque itself is not sacred to Jews, it is rather is a symbol of Islamic invasion and dominance over Judaism right in the heart of the Jewish capital.

Jews are not allowed to pray on their holiest site. Israeli police stop them from doing so and Muslim Arab women are paid to spew abuse at Jews who try to visit the site, not enter the mosque just visit the Temple Mount,

Was Orla Guerin's statement the result of ignorance, in which case she should learn about the history of the region before reporting on it again, or was it just symptomatic of the BBC's anti-Israel bias?

BBC News revert to type on reporting about Jerusalem

This BBC report on two Israeli Jews murdered by Palestinians http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-34417930 has reverted to the BBC's preferred lie about Jerusalem:

'Tensions have been particularly high in recent weeks over the long-running issue of access to the al-Aqsa mosque compound in East Jerusalem.

Al-Aqsa is one of Islam's holiest sites and is in the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif site also revered by Jews.'

The Temple Mount site is the holiest site in Judaism as the BBC started to acknowledge recently after pressure from me and others. It's odd that they have reverted to their old ways. 

Maybe the BBC could explain to its audience how the holiest site in Judaism not only has a mosque on it but also is somewhere where Jews are banned from worshipping, even in secret.

The BBC is institutionally anti Israel and that shows time and time again.

Israel steps up Jerusalem security after Palestinian clashes per BBC News

I am in a slight state of shock, maybe my blog posts, tweets and complaints to the BBC have had an effect. Within this BBC report is this:

'The compound - known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif - is the holiest site in Judaism, and contains the al-Aqsa Mosque - the third holiest site in Islam.'

Finally the BBC recognise the importance of the Temple Mount to Judaism. Now of only they'd report that the reason both religions have holy sites in the same place is because the Muslims built their mosque on top of the Jewish Temple then we'd really be getting somewhere.

BBC report here http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34297909

Jerusalem clashes 'may ignite violence beyond its walls' - BBC News scum at it again

This BBC report http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34262947 contains this line that has really pissed me off:

'Al-Aqsa is one of Islam's holiest sites and is in the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif site also revered by Jews.'

The site would be the holiest in Judaism being the site of The Temple were it not for the fact that The Temple had been destroyed and a Mosque built on top of it. All that is left of The Jewish Temple is one of its retaining walls, the Western or Wailing Wall 

The BBC should know this but if they don't they should bloody well learn. If they do know this but prefer not to inform their readers then they are just continuing the policy of the institutionally anti Israel BBC that was revealed in the Balen Report.

What makes Jerusalem so holy? - BBC News

The BBC ponder this question in this report http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26934435

Can you guess which religion is put last in the report? Yes that's right, the oldest of the three religions.

But it's the passage on Judaism that interests me as a whole.

'The wall

The Jewish Quarter is home to the Kotel, or the Western Wall, a remnant of the retaining wall of the mount on which the Holy Temple once stood.

Inside the temple was the Holy of Holies, the most sacred site in Judaism.

Jews believe that this was the location of the foundation stone from which the world was created, and where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac.

Many Jews believe the Dome of the Rock is the site of the Holy of Holies.

Today, the Western Wall is the closest place Jews can pray to the Holy of Holies.

It is managed by the Rabbi of the Western Wall and every year hosts millions of visitors. Jewish people from all over the world visit this place to pray and connect to their heritage, especially during the High Holidays.'

How's your logic? '... the Western Wall, a remnant of the retaining wall of the mount on which the Holy Temple once stood... Many Jews believe the Dome of the Rock is the site of the Holy of Holies.'
 

 If the Western Wall is a remnant of the retaining wall of the mount on which the Holy Temple once stood, and no doubt about this is expressed here (if there was doubt then the institutionally anti Israel BBC would shoehorn a weasel word conditional term into the description of the Western Wall), then geography would make it pretty clear where The Temple was and what is there now.

It fits the BBC's anti Israel agenda to discount Israel's claim on Jerusalem. And this is something that they do as often as possible.

The BBC don't explain why The Jewish Temple is no longer there. But then the BBC also manage to avoid reporting that despite associating themselves with the view that Israel is an apartheid state, Israel has ceded control of the holiest site in Judaism to a Muslim entity.

Perhaps the BBC could contrast this action with that of the Jordanians who occupied the eastern part of Jerusalem from 1948-1967 and during that period expelled Jews from it, ethnic cleansing, destroyed synagogues and made it all but impossible for Jews to visit even the Western Wall. The BBC could do this, but to do so would be to go against their settled anti Israel narrative and letting the light of facts onto this subject is not in the interest of the BBC or its Muslims Arab fellow travellers.

The BBC's obsession with promoting hatred of Israel and increasing Muslim immigration into the UK is at least partly responsible for the rise in anti-semitic feeling in the UK and beyond. When Jews start once again to be persecuted in the UK, it is the BBC who will share a large part of the blame for creating the atmosphere that this anti Semitism flourished in.

Clashes at Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque per BBC News

The BBC news report has been updated http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34237219 and as I predicted takes one side of the story.

'Clashes have broken out at the al-Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem after Israeli police entered the compound, reports say.'

Dozens of police broke into the site and Palestinians threw stones and fireworks at them, Israel's Ynet news reports.'

So the Israeli police just broke into the site for no reason? And then the Palestinians responded?

'Similar clashes took place at the end of July.'

Any interest in reporting the causes of those?

'Al-Aqsa is one of Islam's holiest sites and is in the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif site also revered by Jews.'

Surely the Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism but the institutionally anti Israel BBC won't report that.

'Footage of police apparently entering the compound was circulating on social media.

The disturbances come hours before the start of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, which begins at sunset on Sunday and continues until Tuesday evening.'

In 1973 on Yom Kippur, one of the Jewish High Holy Days, Arab Muslim countries invaded Israel trying to destroy it, they failed. Now on the eve of Rosh Hashonah, the other Jewish High Holy Day, trouble is starting.

The BBC is institutionally anti Israel and will report this, like any other story set in Israel and the Palestinian Territories, from the point of view of the Palestinians. I have zero confidence in the BBC to report in a fair and unbiased way on any news involving Israel.

The Jewish high holy days are a good time for Israel to publish anti Israel stories as most Jews will be too busy praying to respond to the lies and bias. Even a large proportion of nominally non religious Jews attend shul over this period.

Clashes at Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque per BBC News

The institutionally anti Israel BBC are reporting http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34237219 as a headline with no actual content yet that 'Clashes reported as Israeli police enter al-Aqsa mosque complex in East Jerusalem'

Presumably the details will be spun so as to vilify Israel by only giving one side, the Muslim Arab side, of the story any validity.

Reporter's Notebook: By the Temple Mount, we sat and wept per Jerusalem Post

A very interest post http://www.jpost.com/page.aspx?pageid=7&articleid=415605 that really should be worthy of interest from the likes of the institutionally anti Israel BBC.

'From the start, the sense was that the police work for the Isalmic Wakf, which manages the site, and not for the citizens of Israel. They treated us with disdain, and catered to and tried to anticipate every inane complaint by Wakf staff. '

This is what's happening in the capital of Israel and it stinks.

Jerusalem Gay Pride: Six stabbed 'by ultra-Orthodox Jew' per BBC News

I think that the BBC news department have had a collective orgasm. The top news story on their world site, also third lead story on the main news site is that 'Jerusalem Gay Pride: Six stabbed 'by ultra-Orthodox Jew''

The BBC are going big on this story, never mind that the perpetrator has been arrested, never mind that the Israeli government has denounced the attack. This is just the type of story that gets the BBC's collective juices flowing as they can use it as yet another excuse to vilify Israel, coincidentally increasing the amount of anti Semitic sentiment in the UK and around the world. Meanwhile the Iranian state kills homosexuals just for being homosexual and other Islamic states persecute homosexuals, but that's not important news for the BBC as that might show Islam in a bad light and risk Islamophobia and that would never do.

How the BBC's Middle East 'journalists' sleep at night I'll never know.

More poisonous shite from the BBC here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-33726634

The standard BBC wording at the end of their coverage of this morning's bus attack in Tel Aviv really pisses me off

The BBC's obsessive hatred of Israel leaks out all over the place, rather like the blood from a stabbed Jew. 

This BBC report on the latest attack on innocent Israeli civilians is not too bad but it ends with the BBC's handy facts that you might read and so excuse the Palestinian perpetrator's actions.

The one line that pisses me off the most is this one:

'The Palestinians in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem have lived under Israeli occupation since 1967.'

Leaving aside the question of what is occupation and indeed the decisions at the Oslo Accords definitions, the most pissy angle here is that it might lead the less informed reader to think that Israel 'occupied' Palestinian ruled land in 1967. 

This misdirection is of course deliberate by the BBC. 

Jerusalem has only been split between Western and Eastern for 19 years in its long existence, those 19 years being from 1948 to 1967 when it was occupied by Jordan. 

The West Bank was not part of a Palestinian state prior to 1967, it was land that Jordan occupied.

The founding documents of Fatah PLO from pre 1967 quite deliberately make it clear that the 'Palestinians' make no claim on the West Bank, more correctly Judea and Samaria.  

The Palestinian cause is founded on lies, they don't really want a new separate state, they just want no Israel or Jews. The institutionally anti-Israel BBC is happy to assist them in any way that they can.

The murders in Jerusalem

Vile, disgusting and will happen again unless action is taken. 

Because on the BBC some 'holy sites' are holier than others

The BBC's report on the Pope's visit to Jerusalem is fascinating for what it reveals about the BBC different attitudes to Jewish and Muslim 'holy sites'.

The BBC article has these two lines near the top of it:

At the al-Aqsa mosque compound, the Pope urged people of all religions to "work together for justice and peace".

He then prayed at the Western Wall, which lies just beneath it, bowing his head as he touched the stones.

Note how the BBC carefully crowbar the word into the Al-Aqsa line but leave any mention of peace out of the Western Wall line, subtle but effective?

Note how these two lines don't ponder why Jews worship at a wall not a standard place of worship, nor why the Al Aqsa mosque compound stands above the Western Wall.

The BBC soon bring in one of their favourite pieces of rubric:

Pope Francis began the third day of his trip by visiting the compound, considered the third holiest site in Islam.  

No mention of for how long the Al Aqsa mosque has been considered the 'third holiest site in Islam', I wonder why.


Moving on, the BBC article then has some more about the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount:

Known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) and Jews as the Temple Mount, the status of the site is one of the most contentious issues in the Israel-Palestinian conflict .

Pope Francis took off his shoes to enter the Dome of the Rock, from where Islamic tradition says the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven. The Pope then walked to the nearby al-Aqsa Mosque.

Speaking to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, the Pope deviated from his prepared remarks to call on Christians, Jews and Muslims to "love one another as brothers and sisters".

"May we learn to understand the suffering of others. May no-one abuse the name of God through violence," he said.

Afterwards, he headed to the Western Wall, one of the holiest sites in Judaism. It is part of the retaining wall of the Temple Mount dating back to a time when a Jewish temple stood there.

The Pope spent a few minutes praying at the wall, as he did on Sunday at the controversial Israeli security barrier that separates the biblical town of Bethlehem in the West Bank from Jerusalem.  

The Western Wall is described as 'one of the holiest sites in Judaism' there is no mention of what would be the holiest site in Judaism - the Temple in Jerusalem - because Jews don't choose to have a wall to worship at, they only have a wall because Islam has built a bloody great Mosque on top of the Jewish Temple.  The BBC do at lease mention that a Jewish Temple did once stand there but it's left to the reader to put two and two together and reach the uncomfortable (for the BBC) truth that is the number four.

Note also how the BBC equate prayer at the Western Wall with the 'controversial Israeli security barrier'. No mention of why Israel needed to build that security barrier, oddly the BBC choose not to call it a wall here but the comparison with the Western Wall does that for them in this instance and the BBC would have loved the idea of comparing the two walls.


The BBC piece continues:

Later, the Pope travelled to Yad Vashem, Israel's national Holocaust memorial, where he kissed the hands of several survivors in a sign of honour.

At a solemn ceremony at the Hall of Remembrance, he spoke of the "boundless tragedy of the Holocaust", describing it as an "unfathomable abyss".

"Never again, Lord, never again!" he said. "Here we are, Lord, shamed by what man - created in your own image and likeness - was capable of doing."

Our correspondent says the visit to the memorial holds special significance because of questions over the Vatican's position during the Holocaust.

Now the BBC know that the holocaust was a bad thing and like to attack (quite correctly) the Catholic Church for its failure to oppose the holocaust. Oddly the BBC are less willing to link the Muslim population of the Middle East and in particular their leader, the Mufti of Jerusalem, with the holocaust. I suppose such links would, whilst truthful, go against their view of Islam...

The BBC piece continues:

The Pope then met Israel's two chief rabbis before attending a private audience with President Peres, whom he asked to guarantee pilgrims free access to Jerusalem's holy sites.

Did the Pope not bring up the matter of Islamic persecution of Christians in the Palestinian Territories? If not, why not? If he did then why do the BBC not report it, or ask why he didn't?

Finally the BBC include this bit:

Shortly before departing for Rome from Ben Gurion airport, he celebrated Mass at the site known as the Cenacle, where Jesus is reputed to have taken part in the Last Supper with his Apostles on the eve of his crucifixion.

The Cenacle is located in a historic building on Mount Zion that is also sacred to both Jews and Muslims. The reputed burial place of King David is on the ground floor of the Cenacle, while a mosque is situated on the roof.

 What a coincidence, another Jewish holy site with a mosque built on top of it. What are the odds on that happening more than once? For the BBC this is a matter of no interest at all, just one of those things.


So there you have it, another superbly unbiased piece of Middle East reporting from the BBC:

1. for whom the holocaust was a bad thing but Islam's links to it must never be mentioned
2. for whom Jerusalem's place as the third holiest site in Islam is sacrosanct whilst it's position in Judaism is an inconvenience to peace
3. for whom the presence of Jewish religious sites underneath Muslim ones is of no interest or relevance
4. for whom any reference to prayer at the Western Wall must be linked to the security wall

 

I spoke too soon! A fine example of BBC bias by omission

As I blogged earlier I was going to have a bit more time away from blogging but then I took a quick look at the BBC website... There I found this BBC article entitled 'What makes Jerusalem so holy?' The article begins thus:

'While Christians around the world are enjoying the Easter holiday, Jews everywhere are celebrating the holiday of Passover - a convergence of festivals which traditionally sees a surge in pilgrims to Jerusalem.

The BBC's Erica Chernofsky takes a closer look at why this city is so important to Christianity, Islam and Judaism, the three religions which trace their shared origins back to the biblical figure of Abraham.'

Do read the whole article and pay particular attention to the passage headed 'The wall':

'The Jewish Quarter is home to the Kotel, or the Western Wall, a remnant of the retaining wall of the mount on which the Holy Temple once stood.

Inside the temple was the Holy of Holies, the most sacred site in Judaism.

Jews believe that this was the location of the foundation stone from which the world was created, and where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac.

Today, the Western Wall is the closest place Jews can pray to the Holy of Holies.

It is managed by the Rabbi of the Western Wall and every year hosts millions of visitors. Jewish people from all over the world visit this place to pray and connect to their heritage, especially during the High Holidays.'

Oddly the BBC choose not to tell us what exists on the site of the Holy Temple, now why would that be?  Maybe you should read this earlier article of mine  for enlightenment.

What the BBC do tell us about the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem is that:

'The Muslim Quarter is the largest of the four and contains the shrine of the Dome of Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque on a plateau known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary.

The mosque is the third holiest site in Islam and is under the administration of an Islamic trust called the Waqf.

Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad travelled here from Mecca during his night journey and prayed with the souls of all the prophets. A few steps away, the shrine of the Dome of the Rock holds the foundation stone, where Muslims believe Muhammad then ascended to heaven.

Muslims visit the holy site all year round, but every Friday during the holy month of Ramadan, hundreds of thousands of Muslims come to pray at the mosque.'

Before Israel retook Jerusalem from Muslim occupation this is how Muslims treated the 'third holiest site in Islam'





The BBC anti-Israel agenda is transparent and relentless.