The flip side of the "Jewish settlers storming Al Aqsa" evergreen Arab reports

As we've seen many times, there are daily headlines in Arab media from Algeria to Iraq of "fanatic Jewish settlers storming Al Aqsa mosque" when Jews quietly roam and tour the Temple Mount.

But that evergreen headline changes on Fridays.

On Fridays, Jews aren't permitted to ascend, and tens of thousands of Muslims go for Friday prayers.

The Arab media theme every Friday looks like this: 

Tens of thousands performed Friday prayers in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, despite the strict military measures imposed by the Israeli occupation authorities at the gates and entrances to the Old City of occupied Jerusalem. 

The Department of Islamic Endowments in Jerusalem estimated that about 50,000 worshipers performed Friday prayers in Al-Aqsa compound. The occupation police prevented the worshipers from entering the mosque, who flocked since the morning hours, through careful inspections of their belongings, and checking their personal identities. 

The occupation forces deployed in the streets of the city and the vicinity of Al-Aqsa, stationed at its gates, stopped the worshipers, checked their ID cards, and prevented the entry of thousands of citizens from the governorates of the West Bank.

The worshipers heroically evade evil Israeli police, and 50,000 of them managed to slip through the Israeli cordon.

What is really happening is that Israel doesn't allow Palestinians from the West Bank to come into Jerusalem without a permit every day. Residents of Jerusalem and the rest of Israel are free to go worship. 50,000 is pretty typical, when the weather is bad it is usually 40,000 or so. 

There is nothing newsworthy happening, but the Arabs know that unless they keep emphasizing the importance of Al Aqsa, the people will lose interest, as they did for centuries between the Crusades and the twentieth century.

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