Daphne Anson: "My Palestinian Friends Call It Al Quds": Al Beeb Reporter Talks About Jerusalem

Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East. (From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Saturday 20 August 2011

"My Palestinian Friends Call It Al Quds": Al Beeb Reporter Talks About Jerusalem

True to the BBC's ignoble track record of bias against Israel, its Middle East correspondent Yolande Knell has introduced a report on Israeli and Palestinian Arab attitudes to Jerusalem with a gratuitous anecdote ridiculing an Israeli Jew.

She didn't describe the lad she claims sat next to her on a flight from Heathrow to Israel by the stereotype "pushy Jew", but there seems little doubt that that is what she meant by snidely describing the lad as "over-familiar":

'The increasingly heated dispute over place names in Israel underlies a much greater political struggle, the BBC's Yolande Knell explains from Jerusalem.

"Where are you going?" asked the friendly, but slightly over-familiar, Jewish-Israeli boy sitting next to me on the plane from London.

"I work in Jerusalem," I replied.

His smile instantly turned to a scowl. "It's not Jerusalem," he said. "It's Yerushalayim".

"That's in Hebrew, but in English we say Jerusalem," I protested and I was about to add - somewhat mischievously - that my Palestinian friends refer to it as "al-Quds" - the Arabic name for the city.

But at that point, the boy's little sister spilled orange juice over his lap. Our conversation was cut short.'

Not much demonstrated knowledge, let alone comprehension or sympathy, in the rest of Knell's report for the integral importance of Jerusalem, founded by King David, to Judaism and to Jewish history. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14515035

What a worthy recruit to Jezza Bowen's team!

Next time she talks to one of her "Palestinian friends", she might ask them how many times Jerusalem - pardonnez-moi, Al Quds - is mentioned in the Koran, and then compare that figure to the number of times Jerusalem is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.

See also the end of this post, regarding Lifta: http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2011/05/history-men-truth-versus-falsehood.html

8 comments:

SteveR20 August 2011 at 21:24
And my Catholic friends call it DERRY not LONDONDERRY, touche.
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Daphne Anson20 August 2011 at 21:26
[Another] good one, Steve!
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Juniper in the Desert21 August 2011 at 00:28
Steve, Derry was always Derry before it was called Londonderry! But Jerusalem has never ever been called al qods! The Arabs made up the name in 1967.

Thanks Daphne for the uncovering of another dead-beat from al beeb: Yolande "death" Knell.
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Daphne Anson21 August 2011 at 00:43
They are all cast in Bowen's image by the seem of it, Juniper!
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Ian G21 August 2011 at 04:10
I wonder how old the child was? Teen-age boys are not generally friendly to strangers ...unless Miss Knell is pretty? Primary age boys, especially the brighter ones, do have a tendency to correct adults. I have come across children of other faiths who assume that Christian must be totally ignorant of any other faith, even though I am an RE teacher! Muslims, Sikhs and even Jews have been surprised to discover that I know than they do - but they were children. It's what children do. It's quite wrong of her to use a child to make a political point.
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Daphne Anson21 August 2011 at 06:01
Thanks, Ian - very interesting points!
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Jacob21 August 2011 at 17:51
I could not care less if Ms. Knell calls the place Jerusalem, Yerushalaim or Al-Quds for that matter; the whole report is a typical BBC beat-up.

The fact of the matter is that it was “Yerushalaim” long before it was anything else and it is particularly true when we talk about the old city, the only Yerushalaim in King David’s days. Jews always called it “Yerushalaim”.

Another fact the BBC conveniently loose is that Jerusalem is mentioned in the Bible 656 time but not a single time in the Koran.

Ms. Knell seems to take exception to Israel sovereignty over the whole of Jerusalem just because the old city was occupied in the 1967 war (after Israel was attacked). Yet when the Jordanian Legion occupied the old city in 1948, expelled all the Jews and held it for 19 years we heard nothing from the BBC and their ilk; nor did we hear anything about the West Bank and the Gaza Strip being “Palestinian land” or Jerusalem being the capital of “Palestine” because these lands were held by Jordan and Egypt and the term “Palestinians” that describe the Arabs of Palestine was yet to be invented.
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Daphne Anson21 August 2011 at 18:21
Very many thanks, Jacob!
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