Earlier this week, Palestinian media published calls to have Jerusalem Arabs enter the Temple Mount early this morning for the explicit purpose of attacking any Jews that want to visit the holy spot on Jerusalem Day. They also urged Jerusalem Arabs to confront and disrupt the Jerusalem Day flag march, especially t Damascus Gate and in the Muslim Quarter.
Because of those reports, the Israeli police ensured that Muslims under 40 could not enter the Temple Mount this morning, and they removed the Muslims from the Qibli prayer hall of Al Aqsa after dawn prayers, knowing that they are likely to do what they did during Ramadan - stockpile stones and fireworks to start a battle. They also closed the shops along the route to minimize any chance of friction.
So now the Muslims are complaining about Israeli restrictions - and using them as incitement.
I don't know if there will be any violence, but when there is, the media starts the story with Israeli restrictions - and not with Palestinian threats that prompt those restrictions.
Did you see a single article about the Palestinian plans to disrupt both any visits to the Temple Mount and the Jerusalem march?
Because the media hardly ever reports the entire story, the Palestinians can claim that their anger is justified by unreasonable Israeli restrictions, and conveniently not mention the explicit incitement and historic violence that prompt those restrictions. Israeli security has to monitor the threats and it has to plan accordingly, but the media doesn't scratch beyond the surface.
Instead of portraying the Israeli security forces as doing everything possible to minimize the chances of violence while ensuring the rights of all to peacefully assemble, they are shown as going way overboard to suppress Palestinians in Jerusalem.
Palestinians take advantage of this. Fatah pre-emptively announced, as they always do, that they hold Israel responsible for any violence - a message to the media to stick with the narrative that Israel is the only party with any responsibility.
And because the media (and NGOs) don't show the entire story, the world thinks that Israel imposes restrictions arbitrarily and out of sheer spite. This in turn encourages Palestinians to more violence knowing that they will never be blamed.
It is a pattern we have seen for years.
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