The West Bank community of Halamish. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

On Friday, July 14, Arab terrorists smuggled semi-automatic weapons onto the Temple Mount, killing two Israeli police officers.

At least one of the Arab Israeli attackers is believed to have been motivated by his fear that “Al-Aqsa Mosque was in danger” — a lie that has been cynically used by Palestinian leaders over the past century to incite violence against Jews and Israelis.

This unprecedented violence on the Temple Mount prompted increased Israeli security measures, including the introduction of metal detectors for all Mosque visitors — similar to the detectors that Jews must pass through on their way to the Western Wall.

In response, Arab and Palestinian political and religious leaders have been framing the metal detectors as an incendiary act, a violation of the status quo, a threat to the mosque and — most importantly — an excuse for more violence. This incitement led to Palestinian rioting in east Jerusalem throughout last week, and culminated in a call by Palestinian religious and political leaders for a “Day of Rage” on Friday to protest the Israeli government’s decision to keep the metal detectors in place.

Such incitement prompted thousands of Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank to take to the streets and attack police with rocks and Molotov cocktails, and ended with a deadly terror attack on Friday evening. That night, in the Israeli town of Halamish, a Palestinian terrorist broke into the home of a family that had just sat down for Shabbat dinner, and stabbed Yosef Salomon, 70, and two of his children — Elad, 36 and Chaya, 46 — to death.

The terrorist, Omar al-Abed, had posted a message on Facebook before the killing, citing Israeli “desecration” of Al-Aqsa as his motivation, and imploring Palestinians to kill more Israelis to defend the “endangered” mosque — which is presumably threatened by the installation of metal detectors.

“I am writing my will and these are my last words,” he wrote. “I am young, I have not yet reached the age of 20, I have many dreams and aspirations. But what life is this, in which they murder our wives and our youth without any justification. They desecrate the Al-Aqsa Mosque and we are asleep, it’s a disgrace that we sit idly by.”

He continued, asking those who have weapons “but only take them out for weddings and celebrations: Are you not ashamed of yourselves? Why won’t you declare war for God? They have closed Al-Aqsa Mosque and your weapons are still.”

“All I have is a sharpened knife, and it responds to the call of Al-Aqsa,” he went on to say. “Shame on you, you who preach hate. God will take revenge on you…we are all sons of Palestine and sons of Al-Aqsa. You, the sons of monkeys and pigs, if you do not open the gates of Al-Aqsa, I am sure they will come after you and beat you with an iron first, I warn you.”

However, the UK media largely framed the murders as a reaction to legitimate Palestinian concerns over “Israeli restrictions” to the mosque — all the while ignoring the role of Palestinian incitement, and downplaying the original Temple Mount terror attack that prompted the installation of the metal detectors.

In the stories that we reviewed — which were published after the terror attack in Halamish — most misleadingly cast the Palestinian killings as a part of a series of “clashes” on Friday over Israel’s installation of metal detectors — equating Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces during violent riots (initiated by Palestinian leaders) with the intentional Palestinian murder of innocent Jewish civilians.

Three innocent Israelis were not killed by “tensions,” or Israel’s installation of metal detectors. They were murdered by a particular Palestinian man who bought into the false Palestinian narrative that ‘the mosque was in danger,’ and that the best way to defend it was by killing “the sons of monkeys and pigs.”

It’s impossible to properly understand events in Jerusalem over the past week without acknowledging this continuing pattern of Palestinian incitement, antisemitism and violence.