An aerial view of the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

On August 1, 2023, the Associated Press reported that Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir had visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque a week prior.

Ben-Gvir, had, however, only walked on the Temple Mount compound and had not visited the actual mosque. In correspondence with HonestReporting, the AP acknowledged the imprecise nature of the wording and committed to be more attentive to this issue in the future.

Hey @AP, no Jews, including Ben-Gvir, visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque let alone stormed it.

Your failure to properly differentiate between the Temple Mount and the mosque amplifies and gives credibility to Islamic Jihad & other extremists’ inflammatory lies.https://t.co/tg5UgC80ig pic.twitter.com/FhO6BXlCDB

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 2, 2023

In fact, HonestReporting had prompted the AP only days earlier to correct a faulty headline on the same issue.

However, the AP is not the only news source to erroneously describe the entire compound as “Al-Aqsa mosque,” with both Reuters and the Middle East Eye having recently done so, thus adopting a false Palestinian narrative.

The Al-Aqsa mosque sits at the southern end of the Temple Mount. The mosque and the Temple Mount are not the same.@Reuters, we’ve added the missing word in the paragraph for you.

Please clear up the confusion.https://t.co/msgfGMcF4p pic.twitter.com/G7QBlgXZVl

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 3, 2023

The Al-Aqsa Mosque was built in the late seventh/early eighth century CE by the Umayyad Caliphate at the site where most Sunni Muslims believe Mohammed ascended to heaven.

Both the mosque and the nearby Dome of the Rock shrine were built on the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, which was previously home to the First and Second Jewish Temples in antiquity.

During the Middle Ages, those who touted the importance of Jerusalem to Islam began to refer to the Temple Mount as al-Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary), which gradually became accepted throughout the Sunni world and is still used today by Muslim organizations worldwide, including the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Following the Six-Day War in 1967, when Israel gained control over the site, the Palestinians began to do away with the al-Haram al-Sharif moniker and referred to the entire Temple Mount compound as al-Aqsa. At the same time, the actual mosque began to be referred to as al-Qibli mosque (southern mosque).

While some see this as a form of Islamic traditionalism, the name change is steeped in contemporary politics — by claiming that the entire compound is a mosque, the Palestinians are effectively blocking any discussion about Jewish prayer at Judaism’s holiest site, and even calling into question the visit of Jewish pilgrims to the site.

This is particularly evident from the fact that the usage of “Al-Aqsa” to refer to the entire compound gained steam in the 1980s, when Jewish groups focused on the Temple Mount were gaining prominence.

When international media organizations adapt their terminology to the Palestinian narrative that the entire Temple Mount is Al-Aqsa Mosque, they contribute to the erasure of the Jewish connection to the site as well as embolden those who seek to use Jewish visits to the holy site as a justification for violence and terrorism.