LONDON: The desecration of the Masjid-al-Aqsa in Jerusalem yesterday [June 15] by Israeli troops was testified to by British newspaper correspondents who today also criticised the brutal treatment meted out to foreign journalists and others watching the destruction of houses adjoining the mosque and owned by its ancient trust.

Correspondent John Wallis of the “Daily Telegraph” described how he was “seized by two members of Israeli Religious Affairs Ministry who rushed me across the sacred soil of the mosque’s courtyard to which they paid no attention or respect and then down the steps to the piazza in front of the ‘Wailing Wall’”. BBC Correspondent Michael Elkin also complained of rough treatment when he went to see the destruction of houses on the southern extension of the ‘Wailing Wall’.

... The barbaric conduct of the Israelis inside and around Masjid-al-Aqsa yesterday contrasts sharply with the peace pronouncements of Premier Golda Meir during her current visit to Britain.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2019