In the opening paragraph of your 4/1/23 article titled ‘Jerusalem:

Palestinian anger…’ you refer to Al-Aqsa as a ‘contested holy site’ and reference ‘competing claims’ to Al-Aqsa in the context of a ‘conflict’ between Palestinians and Israelis.

First, Al-Aqsa is not a ‘contested holy site’; this is factually incorrect. Al-Aqsa is a sacred compound in illegally occupied East Jerusalem, which is gravely threatened by Israel’s illegal occupation and apartheid regime.

For many years Israel has sought to take control of Al-Aqsa as part of its illegal occupation of Palestinian land. Israel’s new National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is the latest Israeli minister to further this ambition by provocatively visiting Al-Aqsa on his third day in office (Monday).

Al-Aqsa is in East Jerusalem, which was illegally seized by Israel in June 1967, along with what remained of historic Palestine after the Nakba (Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948). In 1980 Israel announced the Jerusalem Law, illegally annexing East Jerusalem including Al-Aqsa. Israel’s unilateral declaration of control of East Jerusalem violates international law. By describing Al-Aqsa as ‘contested’, the BBC is complicit in Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land.

In addition, your aforementioned article refers to a ‘conflict’ between Palestinians and Israelis. This is also factually incorrect. ‘Conflict’ suggests there are two equal sides (Palestinians and Israelis) who are fighting. But there are not. Instead, Israel has stolen Palestinian land for 75 years now, whilst Palestinians have resisted this injustice. From Israelis, there is violence to expel Palestinians and occupy more Palestinian land. From Palestinians, there is resistance to this aggression. Leading international human rights organisations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch call this apartheid.

We request that you correct the factual inaccuracies in this article and do not repeat these mistakes.