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| McPhail, desecrating Al Aqsa while discussing how to keep it Judenfrei |
Besides the story being literally unbelievable to begin with, Israellycool also showed discrepancies in different versions of the story by the same "witnesses."
As usual with Ma'an, no attempt was made to verify this story. No one questions why Ma'an cannot bother sending a reporter to do even a modicum of fact-checking, something that any legitimate newspaper in the world would do before publishing such allegations.
Just as with their long history of stories about wild boars that settlers allegedly raise in order to have them attack Palestinians, and other ludicrous allegations, this ridiculous story is believed by people who are already predisposed to believe anti-Israel libels.
Such as British Consul General in Jerusalem, Alastair McPhail, who uncritically retweeted the story.
McPhail defended his tweet after someone pointed him to my post:
@dunn_martin @elderofziyon @MaanNewsAgency The blog doesn't disprove the article. And there's plenty of video of olive tree destruction.
— Alastair McPhail (@CGAMcPhail) February 1, 2015
I replied, and he responded; here's the thread:
@elderofziyon @dunn_martin @MaanNewsAgency Of course not. But settlers have attacked Palestinians and destroyed crops. That's not disputed.
— Alastair McPhail (@CGAMcPhail) February 1, 2015
@CGAMcPhail and how many toddlers have been kidnapped by settlers? @dunn_martin @MaanNewsAgency
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) February 1, 2015
@elderofziyon @MaanNewsAgency Of course not. But settler violence and crop destruction well documented. UK MPs witnessed latter last year
— Alastair McPhail (@CGAMcPhail) February 1, 2015
.@CGAMcPhail When both stories have the exact same amount of credibility and "eyewitness" proof. @MaanNewsAgency
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) February 1, 2015
.@CGAMcPhail You don't think Israeli media would be all over a story like this if it was credible? @MaanNewsAgency
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) February 1, 2015
McPhail is fixated on my writing that "That's why there are so many stories about thousands of olive trees being destroyed but the only photo accompanying the story is a generic, staged 'Arab woman wailing' photo. I wasn't saying that there is no crop destruction by Jews; I'm saying that it is vastly exaggerated and many of the specific stories have been proven false. (It is very, very hard to uproot an olive tree.)
McPhail has courted controversy before, notably when he wore this keffiyeh that erased Israel and said "Free Palestine". The Islamic charity that published the photo sort-of apologized months later under severe pressure, but McPhail never did.
By the way, Ma'an's comment system is heavily moderated; many of my comments never get posted. However, this antisemitic comment on that article made it through with no problem - and it has remained up many hours after I pointed it out.
Hey, its only an antisemitic blood libel. No need to moderate that!
This is the source that the British consul is trusting when he decides what to retweet.