How a French tourist turned into an "Israeli settler extremist" on the Temple Mount

From Ma'an:

Clashes broke out between Palestinian worshipers and and Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Tuesday after an Israeli extremist attempted to raise the Israeli flag over the holy site, witnesses said.

Witnesses said that Palestinian worshipers asked Israeli police to stop the extremist but they were ignored.

Palestinian worshipers and compound security guards then stopped the extremist themselves and tore up the flag, witnesses said.

They added that the Israeli extremist assaulted the worshipers with a sharp implement, injuring two Palestinians identified as Muammad Badran and Suliman abu-Mayyala.

Arab media refer to the person near the Dome of the Rock as a "settler."

it is highly unusual for a religious Jew to approach the Dome of the Rock, so this sounded suspicious.

Especially when Arabic media published video and photos of this supposed "Israeli extremist" "settler":

He doesn't exactly look like a religious Jewish Zionist, does he?

You have to look at the Hebrew media to learn what happened.

This is a French tourist. (Initial Israeli reports said he is Italian.)

It is fr from clear that he "waved" the Israeli flag. My guess is that he simply was carrying a souvenir flag that he had bought; there is no video of his waving it or of the crowd ripping it up so for all we know it was a lapel pin.

As usual, truth and calm are not exactly what the Arab media are seeking when they report stories like this. They want to incite hatred.

And it works.