CAMERA to the Rescue

...an entirely separate error, an AP photo of Jerusalem on the Guardian site is accompanied by a grossly misleading caption. The caption of the Nov. 11, 2009 photo reads: "An ultra-Orthodox Jew pauses in front the al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third holiest site and known by Jews as Temple Mount." The problems with this caption are three-fold:

1) This caption gives the misimpression that the man is actually standing in front of the mosque, on the Temple Mount. Given the tensions surrounding the Temple Mount especially at that time, the presence of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man standing in front of the mosque could be enough to set off additional Arab rioting, both on the mount and in nearby eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods.

In reality, he is apparently standing at the top of the steps that lead down to the Western Wall. He is resting his left arm on something, most likely the wall at the overlook at the top of those steps. From where he stands, he is separated from the Temple Mount by the Western Wall plaza. Especially in light of the sensitivity of the site, there is a huge difference between an ultra-Orthodox man standing on the entrance steps to the Western Wall, an area next to the Temple Mount and completely under Israeli control, versus an ultra-Orthodox man standing in front of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, on the Temple Mount itself, which is under the day-to-day control of the Islamic Waqf.

2) Why refer to the Temple Mount as the third holiest site in Islam and not point out that it is the holiest in Judaism?

3) The Al-Aqsa Mosque is not known by Jews to be the Temple Mount, it is known to Jews to be on the Temple Mount.

After being alerted of the errors, the BBC commendably corrected the incorrect description of the man's position in relation to the mosque. The more accurate BBC caption reads: "An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man pauses near the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, an area which Jews know and revere as Temple Mount." (Click on the second photo at the BBC link.) We urge the Guardian to follow the BBC's lead on this issue and improve the caption.