PA lies, but video tells the truth
On Thursday afternoon, two 14 year old Palestinians exited the Temple Mount and immediately stabbed and attempted to murder an Israeli policeman. Video footage shows the attack, the wounded policeman falling to the ground, and the quick response of the other policemen who shot the 2 terrorists before they could continue stabbing the fallen policeman or others. As soon as the terrorists fell to the ground, one policeman is seen raising his hand signaling to the others to stop shooting. The entire terror attack lasted only a few seconds, and left one officer wounded, one terrorist dead, while the second terrorist died later of his wounds.
Notwithstanding the video footage, official PA TV in reporting the story totally ignored the terror attack and referred rather to the children being shot and a "summary execution," as if these were innocent children. In addition, the would be murderer was called a "Martyr", which Palestinian religious leaders have repeatedly explained represents the highest achievement that can be attained by a Muslim.
Ignoring the circumstances, PA officials then used the event to condemn Israel for arbitrarily closing the Temple Mount in an attempt to inflate hatred of Israel.
Official PA TV newsreader: "The occupation authorities are continuing to hold the body of child Martyr Nassim Mukafih Abu Roumi (i.e., terrorist, stabbed and wounded 1), while the arrest of young Hamouda Al-Sheikh from the town of Al-Eizariya east of occupied Jerusalem continues (i.e., Abu Roumi's accomplice, later died of his wounds). The occupation police shot them next to the Chain Gate [of the Temple Mount]."
[Official PA TV News, Aug. 16, 2019]
Abu Roumi's father further embellished the story:
"They could have overpowered them in the first moment, because the army is trained. Seven soldiers came, lay them on the ground, and shot them several times - a summary execution that the Israeli forces commit against our children within Jerusalem."
The PA often claims that Palestinian terrorists who are killed in the course of attempting to carry out a terror attack were "summarily executed" by Israel.
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Advisor on Religious Affairs and Supreme Shari'ah Judge Mahmoud Al-Habbash further fueled the animosity against Israel when he condemned the immediate Israeli response to the event - temporarily closing the Temple Mount for a number of hours - without mentioning the circumstances of the decision and called for Muslims worldwide to mobilize:
"The fact that the Israeli occupation forces closed the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque is a declaration of war against Islam and the Muslims... Al-Habbash called ‘on the Muslims worldwide to mobilize and come to the Al-Aqsa Mosque to carry out Ribat there and defend it alongside their Palestinian and Jerusalem brothers, as the Al-Aqsa Mosque is the First Direction of Prayer of all of the Muslims and not only of the Palestinians, to whom Allah has granted the honor of guarding and defending it.'"
[WAFA, official PA news agency, Aug. 15, 2019]
The PA Ministry of Religious Affairs, similarly ignored the circumstances of the event, adding that the temporary closure is "a new provocative step that was added to the previous steps, and which comes as part of the attempts to establish a division by areas and times within the Al-Aqsa Mosque (see note below -Ed.) as a prelude to taking control of it."
[WAFA, official PA news agency, Aug. 15, 2019]
An additional report in WAFA claimed that "witnesses said Israeli police and a Jewish settler opened fire at the Palestinians after they allegedly came under attack." [WAFA, official PA news agency, Aug. 15, 2019]
Needless to say, claiming that Israel carries out extra judicial killings of Palestinians, killed while attempting to carry out terror attacks serves to further inflate the daily hatred of Israel that the PA preaches. The hatred in compounded and intensified when the terrorists are minors.
Similarly, when the PA suggests that Israel arbitrarily closes the Temple Mount, by failing to give any reasoning behind the Israeli decision, the PA is intentionally trying to infuriate the Palestinian population and possibly even promote violence as it did just last week.
It's worthy to note that one of Israel's foremost security commentators also recognized that this attack was not conducted in a vacuum. Rather he said in a tweet that it was to be expected that after the murder of Dvir Sorek there would be other copycat murderers and the sermons of the Muslim Feast of the Sacrifice holiday (that took place last week) which inflamed the situation and caused the attack of the two minors and another ramming attack on Friday, in which two people were injured.