Daily Mail (AFP) headline fail – Temple Mount edition

First, the characterization of the Jews who visited the site as "radical" (without quotes) seems to be uncritically accepting the Jordanian statement as detailed in the 5th and 6th paragraphs. Also, to describe the Jerusalem site as an "Islamic holy site" in the headline is also extremely misleading. As the article eventually makes clear, the Temple Mount is said to be the third holiest site in Islam, but is also the holiest Jewish site in the world. The Jews weren't visiting a Islamic holy site. They were visiting a Jewish holy site.

h/t Haviv Rettig Gur

Here’s the headline accompanying an Agence France Presse (AFP) article, on an incident at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, published at the Daily Mail on Aug. 15th.

dm afp headline

(We wish to note that this represents the original AFP headline.)

First, the characterization of the Jews who visited the site yesterday on Tisha B’Av as ‘radical’ (without quotes) in the headline (and in the opening sentence) uncritically accepts – as a fact – the Jordanian statement as detailed in the 5th paragraph of the article:

Jordan’s Minister of Islamic Affairs and Awqaf (religious property) Wael Arabiyat denounced Israel for allowing “Zionist extremists” to enter and pray at the compound. “Pursuing such measures could spark a religious war in the region,” Arabiyat warned, saying that granting permission to radical Jews to enter and pray at Al-Aqsa was an act of “tyranny”.

It may be the Jordanian view that any Jew who visits the Temple Mount (Al-Aqsa Compound) is “radical”, but it’s completely inappropriate to convey their opinion as if it’s a fact.  

Also, to describe the Jerusalem site visited by Jews as an “Islamic holy site” in the headline is extraordinarily misleading.  As the article eventually makes clear, the Temple Mount is said to be the third holiest site in Islam, but is in fact the holiest Jewish site in the world. 

The Jews who visited the Temple Mount yesterday weren’t visiting an Islamic holy site. They were of course visiting a Jewish holy site.

We’ve contacted Daily Mail editors asking for a revision to this extremely misleading and tendentious headline.

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