Eldar Not to Be Confused with the Facts
In a May 21 article ironically entitled “Don’t confuse us with facts,” Ha’aretz‘s Akiva Eldar writes:
a new study about psychological obstacles to solving the conflict shows that the average Israeli doesn’t want to know the facts. . . .
If that’s the case, then Akiva Eldar, a veteran reporter for Ha’aretz, considered by some the New York Times of Israel, is no better than the average Israeli. In this very article, Eldar continues to cling to the fantasy that “a Muslim from Ramallah or a Christian from Bethlehem has no chance of getting a permit to pray at Al-Aqsa or the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.”
Eldar goes on to offer more details about the study:
People, [Professor] Bar-Tal explains, have a natural tendency to simplify the world and to insulate themselves from facts that confuse them: “Long-term ideological beliefs make many people close themselves — consciously or not — to information that threatens those beliefs.”
Indeed. How long will Eldar continue to believe — despite all evidence to the contrary — that all Muslims and Christians from the West Bank are prohibited from reaching Jerusalem’s holy sites?
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