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Jerusalem resident claims his reputation was "harmed" because Israeli newspaper quoted his condemnation of Halamish terror attack

Headline: “Mazen Al-Qaq: I will sue Ma’ariv for publishing a false quote of mine”
        “[Arab] Jerusalem resident Mazen Al-Qaq, who serves as chairman of the East Jerusalem Merchants’ Association, condemned all of the lies attributed to him that were quoted on the website of the [Israeli] Ma’ariv newspaper.
Al-Qaq clarified that the [Israeli] newspaper distorted the statement he gave to the press and wrote things that he did not say. Al-Qaq also noted that the newspaper’s journalist only asked him about the operation (i.e., terror attack, 2 murdered) that took place within the Al-Aqsa Mosque plaza, and that he answered that ‘This act is forbidden according to Islam, as it is written in the Quran that it is forbidden for us to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque with weapons or knives (sic., there is no such ban in the Quran).’
Regarding the other operations, Al-Qaq said that he did not refer to them at all, and that the quotes that were attributed to him regarding the Halamish operation (i.e., terror attack, 3 murdered) are false and untrue accusations, as the journalist did not ask him about the Halamish operation. Al-Qaq said that he would not have condemned it as the newspaper claimed.
He emphasized that he has turned to the Israeli legal system in order to sue the newspaper for quoting things he did not say, and that the conversation between him and the Israeli newspaper’s journalist was recorded on his personal telephone. During a visit he made to [the independent Palestinian news agency] Ma’an in order to clarify the things that were attributed to him and which have harmed him, his family, and his reputation, Al-Qaq said… that try as it might, the Hebrew press will not harm his determination to serve the residents of his city, East Jerusalem, but rather will only increase it.”
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The article mentioned, which appeared in Ma’ariv on July 23, 2017, reads: “Al-Qaq explained that he ‘represents 6,000 residents in East Jerusalem, merchants and also civilians who live in the Old City.’ In his words, beyond the situation at the Temple Mount and in the Old City, we see a family sitting together to eat on Friday evening (refers to terror attack in Halamish; see note below –Ed.). And [we] condemn that an Arab young man went in to that family and did what he did. ‘He [the terrorist] is inhuman, he has no heart, and he is lawless, and that is certainly against Islam,’ he emphasized. ‘The Jerusalem residents condemn this, our heart aches over this, and I apologize from one human being to another to the family and to the people of Israel and the State of Israel.’”

Muhammad Ahmad Muhammad Jabarin, Muhammad Hamed Abd Al-Latif Jabarin, and Muhammad Ahmad Mufaddal Jabarin - Israeli Arab terrorists aged 29, 19, and 19, who shot from the Temple Mount at Israeli policemen, murdering 2 Israeli Druze border policemen - Haiel Stawi and Kamil Shnaan, on July 14, 2017. Two of the terrorists were shot and killed by other policemen during the attack. The third terrorist was shot and killed while trying to flee.

Omar Al-Abd – 19-year-old Palestinian terrorist who stabbed and murdered 3 Israelis - Yosef, Haya, and Elad Salomon - and severely injured 1 - Tova Salomon - as they sat at their Sabbath dinner table in Halamish, north of Ramallah, on July 21, 2017. Al-Abd was shot and wounded by a neighbor and taken into Israeli custody, receiving necessary medical treatment in an Israeli hospital. Before committing the attack, Al-Abd wrote in his "will" on Facebook that he was taking his knife to respond to what was happening at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and did not expect to return. A week earlier, a terror attack was carried out at the Temple Mount in which 2 Israelis were murdered. Following the attack Israel closed the Temple Mount for two days and reopened it with metal detectors at the entrance to the holy site. Palestinians interpreted these measures as an “aggression” and “attack” against the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

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