The Islamist terror militia Hamas declared itself scandalized Wednesday following a decision by the EU Court of Justice to keep it on a terrorist blacklist, calling for a “day of rage” Friday to protest against the “injustice” of the decision. A Hamas statement also pointed out the installation of cameras on the Temple Mount by Israeli security forces as an example of the gratuitous “oppression” Palestinians needed to rise up and demonstrate their unwillingness to be subjected to.

Already under severe pressure from all directions, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received another blow this week from within his own Likud Party, with the faction’s ideological bureau voting on Tuesday evening to formally reject the creation of a Palestinian state. Netanyahu has long called for the creation of a Palestinian State under very stringent conditions, but the policy statement rejected such an outcome under any and all circumstances.

A war of words between Israeli and Turkish diplomats was ongoing this week. The Turkish diplomats began it by saying publicly that Israel’s actions on the Temple Mount were an unacceptable insult to all Moslems and chiding Israel by harkening back to a time when the Ottoman Empire ruled Jerusalem, claiming that no such disagreements happened during that time. Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon replied by saying “It’s absurd that the Turkish government, which occupies Northern Cyprus, brutally represses the Kurdish minority and jails journalists, lectures Israel, the only true democracy in the region. The days of the Ottoman Empire have passed.”

The Community Security Trust, a consulting firm which monitors anti-semitism in the UK, issued a report this week indicating a sharp rise in anti-semitic incidents there in the first six months of 2017. Most of the incidents were verbal abuse but there were also at least 80 attacks involving physical violence. “Antisemitism is having an increasing impact on the lives of British Jews and the hatred and anger that lies behind it is spreading,” said CST chief executive, David Delew.

Israel’s Antiquities Authority demonstrated to the public this week a series of new discoveries from the Jerusalem Walls-City of David National Park just south of the Old City. The various artifacts unearthed during this years excavations give dramatic evidence of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians as recorded in the Bible by the Prophet Jeremiah.

What has been motivating many young Palestinians who are protesting outside of the Temple Mount area has been the complete falsehood that Israel intends to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque. This myth was originally begun by the infamous Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini back in 1929. It has returned every four or five years with greater force.