Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Removal of <b>scaffolding</b> in Old City triggers slanted record of <b>...</b>

Mon. 17 Jan. 2011 @ 17.09 –

Refurbishment of holy site prompts one-sided account of Israeli ‘provocations’ in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Writing in The Independent on Friday, Catrina Stewart described the decision by municipal officials in Jerusalem to widen access a courtyard attached to the Western Wall as ‘a move that threatens to inflame tensions at one of the world’s most contested religious sites.’

Scaffolding in the courtyard, which is situated beneath Muslim residences, was removed to allow more worshippers access.

Stewart noted that Teddy Kollek, the former mayor of Jerusalem, was alleged to have rejected calls during his mayorship for the scaffolding to be cleared ‘because of the sensitivity of the site even though he acknowledged it was not needed to support the houses’:

‘His fears were not unfounded. In 1996, the Old City erupted in deadly clashes when Israel opened a tunnel leading to the complex of the Al Aqsa mosque. And it was then opposition leader Ariel Sharon’s visit to the site in 2000 to assert Israeli sovereignty there that triggered the Second Intifada, the mass Palestinian uprising.’

Along similar lines, Stewart described Palestinian concerns over the Temple Mount:

‘Some Palestinians still believe that the Jews intend to raze the mosques [on the Temple Mount] to make way for a Third Temple, which according to Jewish tradition will be built with the coming of the Messiah. Jewish groups have at times played on those insecurities, most recently with an advertising campaign that superimposed the Third Temple over the Al Aqsa mosque.’

While the article clearly gave prominent coverage to Israeli actions which are viewed by Palestinians as ‘an attempt by Israel to establish a dominant Jewish claim over the Old City’, Stewart does not make any reference to Palestinian attempts to deny the connection between Judaism and Jerusalem.

For example, no mention was made by the journalist of the recent controversy involving the Palestinian Authority publishing an official report that claimed that there were no Jewish ties to the Western Wall.

This is not surprising given that Catrina Stewart did not cover the publication of the report in November 2010, or its subsequent removal from the PA website following criticism from the US State Department.

See also: ‘Selective reporting on Western Wall’, on how The Guardian’s Harriet Sherwood ignored the PA report on the Western Wall while emphasising ‘illegal’ Israeli development plans.


View the original article here


Synergy Aluminium Scaffolding Tower

1 comment:

  1. Hi! I know this is somewhat off topic but I was wondering if you knew where I could locate a captcha plugin for my comment form? I'm using the same blog platform as yours and I'm having problems finding one? Thanks a lot! safety decking systems

    ReplyDelete