As sure as night turns into day, the major media networks in the US looked for ways to blame Israel for the increased violence on Monday, a day known as Jerusalem Day — a celebration of the reunification of East and West Jerusalem by the Israeli military in 1967 following the end of the Six Day War. But the celebration was marked by violent clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israelis in Jerusalem and elsewhere.
More than 300 Palestinians were injured fighting in Jerusalem with Israeli forces who fired tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets at rioters at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites, on Monday. Israeli police said 21 officers were hurt and seven civilians were injured.
Palestinian protesters responded by hurling stones at police.
In one incident, they threw rocks at an Israeli vehicle driving outside the Old City walls, causing it to veer off the road, hit a bystander and crash into a stone barrier.
When it came to the US media, they covered the Israeli retaliation as the “escalation”, and not the actions of Hamas to indiscriminately rain down explosive tipped rockets on the civilian population of Israel. Nicholas Fondacaro from Newsbusters called it:
And even though CBS Evening News noted Hamas escalated with the rocket attacks, they griped about Israel responding and defending themselves with airstrikes. pic.twitter.com/xhqp6VOq2z
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) May 10, 2021