WHILE YOU STAND ON ONE LEG: When the Temple Mount reopened to Jews last month after Operation Guardian of the Walls, the Philadelphia Inquirer headlined “Mosque Visits Resume” and wrote of Jews who were visiting our holiest site, that of the Jewish Temples, that “Jews visited the mosque, the third holiest site in Islam.” Can you envision a more provocative mischaracterization?
A Bit About Buildings That Mattered: An Open Letter to the Publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer
Ms. Elizabeth H. Hughes
Publisher and Chief Executive Officer
Philadelphia Inquirer
Dear Ms. Hughes:
I write to bring to your attention your newspaper’s gross misportrayal of buildings that mattered – the Jewish Temples that successively stood for a millennium on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
The Jerusalem Post reported Sunday, May 23, “Temple Mount Reopens to Jews After Weeks of Clashes and Unrest.” It showed a photo of Jews peacefully walking on the Mount’s plaza, with the Dome of the Rock in the background, captioned: “Jews visit Temple Mount after closure during Operation Guardian of the Walls.”
But that is not how your Philadelphia Inquirer portrayed it. On Monday, May 24, you headlined “Mosque Visits Resume,” and captioned a photo of Palestinian Arabs clashing with Israeli police on the plaza, again with the Dome of the Rock in the background:
“Palestinians clash with Israeli police at the al-Asqa mosque complex Friday. On Sunday, a group of 250 Jews visited the mosque, the third holiest site in Islam.” [emphasis added]
Your newspaper not only suppressed the term “Temple Mount,” by which that site has been known here in the West for millennia, but – just in the context of Jews visiting that site – misapplied the name “Al-Aqsa Mosque,” applicable to that mosque’s structure itself, to the entire complex, so you could charge Jews with having “visited the mosque, the third holiest site in Islam.” Very provocative, and very untrue.
*** Like “mosque,” the term “third holiest site in Islam” applies just to the Al Aqsa mosque building itself. E.g., Associated Press, March 15, 2020: “Muslim Officials: Al Aqsa mosque, third holiest site in Islam, closes over virus concerns, prayers to continue outside.”
*** Your own caption of your photo showing Palestinian Arabs clashing with police on the plaza, with the Dome of the Rock in the background, called the site of that clash “the al-Aqsa mosque complex [n.b.].” But in that caption’s next sentence you said Jews “visited the mosque, the third holiest site in Islam,” and you headlined: “Mosque Visits Resume” [emphasis added].
Unless you have a photo of these Jews (compare Jerusalem Post photo) having actually intruded into the Al Aqsa mosque building, what right have you to accuse these Jews, who were visiting the site of what had been the Jewish Temples, the holiest site to Jews the worldover, of having set foot in “the third holiest site in Islam”? Unless these Jews did actually enter that building, you were deliberately baselessly whipping up anti-Jewish hostility. Am I wrong? Deeper than that, by misapplying “third holiest site in Islam” to the entire Temple Mount complex, not just the Al Aqsa mosque building at its southern end, you delegitimize Jewish equity in the Temple Mount altogether, making any Jew, and presumably Christian, who dares set foot there, where those Jewish Temples had stood for a thousand years, a defiler of Islam’s “third holiest site.” Indeed, your calling these Jews who were visiting the Temple Mount having “visited the mosque, the third holiest site in Islam,” seems so outrageously misleading to me I have trouble believing you actually did this.
Apart from the Inquirer’s misportrayal of what one group of Temple Mount visiting Jews did there last month, I find the Inquirer’s pointed shunning of the name by which that historic site has been known here in the West for millennia an act of Inquirer disrespect for Christians as well as Jews. This is not the first time you championed the Muslim name for this site. E.g., on July 15, 2017, both Times of Israel and the Philadelphia Inquirer ran the identical AP photo of two Israeli policemen standing guard before a large green door.
TOI captioned this photo:
“Israel police officers stand guard at the entrance to the Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem’s Old City, Friday, July 14, 2017. (AP, Mahmoud Illean)”
The Inq captioned this same photo:
“Israeli Border Police officers stand guard at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem. Mahmoud Illean / AP”
This email is an open letter to you as weekly issue #1066 of “Brith Sholom Media Watch,” focusing on balanced portrayal of Israel, in terminology in which Israel reporting is done, as well as in reporting of the facts of individual news stories. Calling Jews visiting the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site, their visiting “the mosque, the third holiest site in Islam,” seems to me an exceedingly misleading misstatement of facts and grievous misuse of reporting language. If you care to respond to our readers, we’ll run it next week.