Israel and Palestine

It just came to my attention today that the Al-Aqsa tensions mentioned a few days ago (on the previous page, near the bottom) have quickly blew over as IDF troops barred all Palestinians from entering the mosque on the one hand, and escorted far-right extremist settlers to said mosque where they proceeded to vandalize and burn as they please for at least three days.

Israeli vandals storm Muslims’ al-Aqsa Mosque

Israeli Fanatic Hordes Storm Muslims Al-Aqsa, Female Sit-Inner Attacked

How come none of the world-renowned news outlets are reporting this?

You know why

Because it's complete bullshit.

Marq, doublecheck your sources. As in, beyond obviously biased ones.

...because it didn't happen ?

If it did, you'd better believe it would have been plastered on the front page of every newspaper on earth.

I've seen TV news coverage of the happenings sent over WhatsApp. And I'm mentioning this here because I want to confirm the info, because the very fact that it's not being reported on any reputable source of note (not even Aljazeera) immediately tripped my mental alarms. Thus my tentative conclusion is that this might be propaganda videos from some of the neighbouring dictatorships to distract their own citizens, which somehow ended up in one or more Saudi Arabian citizens' hands, and the rest is history.

That said, the reason I didn't dismiss it on principle is because something like this (clashes and intrusions by the IDF and/or Israeli civilian extremists) did happen before, just nothing to the point of actively desecrating the place.

edited 3rd Oct '15 2:22:59 AM by MarqFJA

It certainly seems like a bullshtis story, also what does the footage actually show? Some people trashing a room? Israelis entering a Mosque?

But yeah that's the kind of thing that even if news organisations ignored it, would have HAMAS and the PA doing a nut, and neither of them seem to have even responded.

Clashes are one thing, but active desecration would be a whole new level.

edited 3rd Oct '15 2:24:27 AM by Silasw

There had been disorder around the place for weeks now, so there's lots of footage of IDF and police activity.

And given that the media tends to throw a temper tantrum every time someone farts in that general direction, I'd expect there to be more attention given to it, had it actually happened.

It showed the interior of a somewhat antiquated-by-modern-standards mosque being trashed and burned. No voices from the vandals can be heard and the video resolution is rather subpar, though, so I can't tell if they're really Jewish settlers. Another video showed what seemed to be an elderly Palestinian man being interviewed, sobbing at "the appalling indifference of the Muslim world to the plight of Al-Aqsa" (summarized paraphrasing), before cutting away to show both broken and burned remains of various items of persumably that same mosque (carpet/rugs, windows, etc).

Of course, the thing that makes me suspicious is that we never get a proper, full view of what the mosque in question looks like from the outside; the major locations on the Temple Mount are quite distinctive in appearance (at least, some features are iconic enough that they stick in memory, e.g. the golden Dome of the Rock), as you all well know.

edited 3rd Oct '15 2:39:35 AM by MarqFJA

Thing is that footage could be literally anything, remember once you see a cut you've no way to tell if the footage is in any way related (American tropers will have seen this with the planned parenthood footage doctoring), so that Palestinian man could have been referring to anything, he simply have been referring to the fact that the area is under Israeli control, or it could be old footage from when there were last clashes in the area. With the Palestinian man's testimony being something that could be unrelated all you've got is a Mosque being trashed, that could be footage of ISIS or the Taliban trashing a place for all we know.

The way to verify the footage as fake (beyond the fact that there's literally no evidence supporting its argument) would be the ID the Palestinian guy being interviewed, as it's entirely likely the interview was done years ago and has been added in for this.

edited 3rd Oct '15 2:51:13 AM by Silasw

Ynet is reporting that a six-year-old Palestinian boy has been shot in the stomach, possibly by an Israeli settler.

Well, shit.

Dammit, why do people do things this this?(note, the question is rhetorical, I know why).

I hope they catch the guy responsible.

edited 3rd Oct '15 4:53:08 AM by Silasw

Probably as a revenge attack for the drive by shooting.

Edit: The IDF claims it was part of an inter Palestinian conflict

edited 3rd Oct '15 6:15:31 AM by JackOLantern1337

Haaretz says the IDF have already changed their story - apparently the kid was playing with a gun. Given that no evidence of that has been presented so far, I'm a mite suspicious.

In fairness it is the kinda thing that could happen. Kid accidentally shoots his younger brother, kid then lies and says that a man came by and randomly shot the younger brother. Thing is the other version also could happen, two kids are playing, angry guy with a gun in his car decides fuck it, he's sick of these Palestinian rats being around him, and shoots the kid.

Also keep in mind that the kid is the son of the head of the regional council, making him a potential target (by anyone) if they wanted to get at his dad.

Some evidence as to what happened is going to be needed.

and a few hours later...

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4706610,00.html

2 killed, 2 wounded in Jerusalem attack

Two Israeli males were killed while a 22-year-old woman, along with her two-year-old baby, were wounded Saturday night by a Palestinian attacker in the Old City of Jerusalem near Lions' Gate.

and, AGAIN, Hamas issues a statement in support.

Stay classy, Hamas.

Found a link with some videos regarding the aforementioned incident that I'm trying to confirm. It appears that there is some Aljazeera coverage of some sort, though I've yet to confirm this as certain.

... However, although the article itself was made today, the two Youtube videos included were first uploaded in mid-September.

More links. And I just got around to looking up the Aljazeera channel, and it says that Israeli forces stormed Al-Aqsa and arrested 40, before some of their members went up to the roof the mosque (I think that's shown in the first third of this video).

A link dating back to mid-September, and another to less than a week ago.

All this is confusing me!

edited 3rd Oct '15 2:28:42 PM by MarqFJA

Yeah, should we launch the Third Intifada or what?

Some would say that the Third Intifada has already begun last year.

@Marq the footage is doctored, it's not complicated. You're not watching footage of a single incident in that video, you're watching two sets of footage that have been stitched together to look like one.

Again, the basic way you can tell it's all fake without even looking at the footage, HAMAS haven't said anything about it, they've got the time to celebrate kids getting shot in Jerusalem but you somehow think they'd miss that going down?

As for the 2nd shooting, holy shit things are getting even worse fast. It looks like all the nuts are coming out of the woodwork, we need a solution fast, or we're gonna have a bloodbath on our hands

The Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade, a Daesh-affiliated group seeking to challenge Hamas' rule over the Gaza Strip, has claimed responsibility for a rocket attack on Israel on Sunday night.

Jerusalem Post analysis piece that suggests that the recent bloodshed is more "grassroots" than anything organised.

My utterly fucking useless country can into relevance: Malaysian Prime Minister Najib is calling for a "new dawn" in Muslim-Jewish relations. Yeah, 'cuz Malaysia has one heck of a track record in success when batting for the Palestinians.

Is a third Palestinian intifada on the way – or has it already begun?

Perhaps if the unrest is directed at Palestinian security authorities, something productive may come of this. It's definitely time for representative leadership and a new round of elections, and if Abbas shows he can't keep the Palestinians underfoot then he'll lose what support he has from the US.

Elections at a time when tensions are high, bodies are piling up and people are afraid they're about to be ethnically cleansed generally doesn't end well.