According to blogger Elder of Ziyon, the Arab media has jumped on the story of an “Israeli extremist” attempting to hoist an Israeli flag over the Dome of the Rock, aka the Temple Mount. Championing the Palestinian worshipers at the scene who attacked the man, the Arab media failed to report that he was not, indeed, an Israeli let alone an “extremist.” Rather, the man being attacked was a French tourist who, according to the blogger, was probably carrying an Israeli flag (or possibly just wearing an Israeli flag lapel pin) purchased as a piece of tourist memorabilia.
Anyone slightly familiar with Israeli culture would recognize the fallacy inherent in the Arab media reports. Religious Jews rarely, if ever approach the Temple Mount. If they do, it is usually in a large group and done intentionally to make a statement. One lone guy? Highly doubtful. Pictures of the supposed Jewish extremist were published revealing a black man wearing a green polo looking rather disoriented (probably because of the head wound he received for walking in the wrong place at the wrong time). In any case, he was not exactly the vision of religious “extremist” Jewry.
How do we know he was a French tourist? Israeli reports, of course. According to one Israeli news outlet, the tourist was a French Christian who displayed the Israeli flag on the Temple Mount. FYI: This is a huge no-no. Sure, Israeli security forces guard the site (and get rocks thrown at them as thanks) but no one is permitted to wave an Israeli flag on Israeli land for fear of “inciting violence” among the locals.
But, as EoZ points out, attacking a French tourist doesn’t play as well as “defending your religious site against Jewish extremists.” So, the entire narrative of the incident was changed in order to suit the Arab media’s political agenda.
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