Israeli paramedics tend to the wounded after the terrorist attack on the Temple Mount. Photo: Israel Police screenshot

Friday’s terrorist attack at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem provided yet another example of how terror apologists avoid acknowledging the reality of Palestinian violence.

Qatar-based Al-Jazeera‘s first headline made it seem like three Palestinians had been killed for no particular reason. “At least three Palestinians killed in shooting in Jerusalem’s Old City,” the network posted on Twitter.

The three Palestinians were, of course, killed after they shot and killed two police officers and wounded a third in an unprovoked attack.

In the United States, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) — which claims to want safe and secure states for both Israelis and Palestinians — reacted to the terrorist attack by sharing a Facebook post with a video about the electricity crisis in the Gaza Strip. “The news today of armed Palestinians killed by Israeli occupying police near Al Aqsa mosque is grim, sad and frightening but won’t include the backdrop of Gaza in the dark — its undrinkable water, children suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder… each day becoming more unlivable,” JVP wrote.

This apparent rationalization of a terrorist attack on the holy site of the Temple Mount is not a surprising move by Jewish Voice for Peace.

For example, a Palestinian activist at a JVP conference earlier this year urged the audience to become “freedom fighters” by utilizing “guerrilla disobedience,” because mere activism against the occupation was not enough.

At another panel on Zionism, JVP officials argued that Israel is an apartheid state — ignoring the equal rights and opportunities enjoyed by Israeli Arabs, while seemingly decrying the very notion of Zionism itself.

JVP also championed the case of convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh, who was responsible for a 1969 grocery store bombing that killed two Israeli students. JVP invited Odeh to speak at its conference this past April, just weeks after she pleaded guilty to US naturalization fraud and agreed to be deported. Odeh claims that her Israeli terrorism conviction resulted from weeks of torture– despite absolutely no evidence of this.

For a group that is supposedly inspired by its faith to work for justice and equality for both Israelis and Palestinians, Jewish Voice for Peace is disturbingly quiet about condemning terrorist violence targeting innocent Israelis.