Serious journalists covering the violence at Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa on April 15th – that is, journalists who sees their role as objectively reporting the “Who, What, When Where, and Why” – could only come to one conclusion: The violence began when Palestinian extremists – incited by Hamas, who falsely cited “Zionist threats to invade the Al-Aqsa Mosque” – began, before dawn, preparing for, and then engaging in, rioting.
Palestinians later barricaded themselves inside the mosque and hurled stones and fireworks toward officers.
Israeli police responded to the rioting only after the conclusion of morning prayers at the mosque. This, we have demonsrated, can easily be corroborated by contemporaneous reports and videos circulated on the morning in question.
After police arrested rioters and restored peace to the area, the site was re-opened, enabling more than 50,000 Muslim worshipers to return to the mosque for Ramadan prayers
We highlighted the word “responded” (in “police responded”) above because some media outlets which covered the incident blurred the sequence of events, or even implicitly suggested that the police instigated the violence. This includes Channel 4 News, which aired the following report by presenter Keme Nzerem:
There’s so much misinformation and deception. But, to highlight one especially egregious part, note that, at 50 seconds into the video, viewers are told the following about how the violence occurred:
“Shortly after dawn and, potentially in breach of international law, Israeli police had entered and then fought with worshipers inside [the mosque]. Israel says they entered to remove stones and rocks they’ve been told had been stockpiled by youths to throw at security forces”.
First, police didn’t fight with “worshipers”. They fought with violent rioters.
And, Israel didn’t just “say” they entered the mosque to remove stones and rocks stockpiled by youths to throw at security forces. There are videos proving that Palestinians were stockpiling rocks before dawn, and other videos showing them hurling these rocks, along with fireworks and both police and Jews praying at the nearby Western Wall.