Making up lies is easy, and there are no consequences for the liars. Certainly no one in the Arab world would dare publicly disagree or repudiate these accusations for fear of looking like Israeli lackeys.
And absurd lies like these are not made intermittently - they are a constant torrent on Arabic websites, with accusations made literally daily about the latest supposed outrageous plan that Israel has for Al Aqsa (tunnels underneath, building a synagogue on top, engineering an earthquake to knock it down....) The major impetus is just pure incitement of hatred against Jews. (This is the picture accompanying the article.)This cannot be overemphasized: the Palestinian Arabic media shows no interest in living together peacefully with Israel. There are no counterbalancing editorials that call for real peace (as opposed to tactical, short-term truces.) Even the "condemnation" that the most moderate of Palestinian Arab leaders, Salim Fayyad, made for the murder of an Israeli last week didn't even hint that it was morally wrong, merely that it was counterproductive for Palestinian Arab interests.
There are no Palestinian Arab counterparts to Gideon Levy or Amira Hass, people willing to insult their own government and identify fully and publicly with the other side. The hate is endemic, widespread and officially encouraged.
This is the real problem. When one side doesn't really want peace but only complete capitulation, and when that same side spends all its time and efforts in demonizing the other side, there will never be any real peace.