If Incitement Doesn’t End – Peace Impossible
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has praised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for publicly raising the issue and condemning Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (PA) incitement to hatred and murder against Jews. In talks with visiting Irish Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore, Prime Minister Netanyahu said that PA incitement is poisoning the atmosphere and cited specifically the PA’s official television broadcast of a program this week in which the terrorists who murdered five members of the Fogel family in Itamar last March were glorified, portrayed as martyrs and heroes. He said that this is tantamount to “confidence destroying measures” (Herb Keinon, ‘“PA incitement is confidence destroying measure,”’ Jerusalem Post, January 27, 2012).
Mr. Netanyahu said, “the Palestinian Authority’s official television broadcasts a glorification of the killers who murdered an Israeli family, the Fogel family. They murdered the three little children and the parents. And they were on official Palestinian television presented as martyrs and heroes. This comes on the heels of the Palestinian Mufti’s call to murder Jews wherever they are. Also broadcast on official Palestinian Television. I think this is the wrong way to go. We demand a prompt condemnation; I hope you demand a condemnation because the only way to move to peace is to prepare our people for peace and not for brutal terror” (‘PM Netanyahu comments on Palestinian incitement,’ Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, January 29, 2012).
Regarding the calls for murder of Jews by the Mufti of Jerusalem, Mr. Netanyahu said on January 23, “A few days ago we heard very serious remarks by the Palestinian Mufti in Jerusalem. These remarks are especially serious both because they remind us of the statements of another mufti who called for the annihilation of the Jews, Haj Amin Al-Husseini, who was one of the architects of the Final Solution, and because they are being uttered today by people who are supposed to support the building of peace between us and our Palestinian neighbors.
The call to murder Jews simply because they are Jews is a terrible thing from an ethical point of view and is an obstacle to peace. Incitement in general is an obstacle to peace. What is especially serious is that as of today, not only has the Palestinian Authority neither condemned nor taken exception to the remarks, it enabled them to be broadcast on official Palestinian television. I expect senior PA officials to condemn this act. Those who want peace should not allow such incitement and calls to murder Jews” (‘PA Mufti encourages killing of Jews,’ Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, January 9, 2012).
Mr. Netanyahu also said to the Knesset on January 24, “Today, most governments around the world are silent in the face of calls by the Palestinian mufti to kill Jews simply because they are Jews. What is most chilling is the fact that there is here a legacy of hatred and annihilation because this mufti is following in the footsteps of that previous mufti. Haj Amin al-Husseini was one of the architects of the Final Solution. He traveled to Berlin. He lobbied and implored Hitler, as was stated by Adolf Eichmann’s deputy at the Nuremberg trials, and this is documented in other sources, and persuaded him more than anyone else to carry out the Final Solution. Not to allow the Jews to leave lest they come here but to annihilate them, to incinerate them. He established Balkan Muslim Waffen-SS units. He broadcast and preached the annihilation of Jews and, more than anyone else, poisoned Arab leaders against Zionism and against the Jewish people. And here is his successor, today, instead of calling for peace and reconciliation, calling for the annihilation of Jews simply because they are Jews. I hear condemnations if there is a house in Gilo or a balcony in Ramot, I hear this from everyone. Where are condemnations of the mufti? Not the previous mufti but the current one?” (‘PM Netanyahu on incitement by the Mufti,’ Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, January 24, 2012).
In the PA TV broadcast regarding the Fogel murders referred to by Prime Minister Netanyahu, greetings were broadcast to the murderers of five members of the Fogel family, slaughtered in their sleep in March 2011 by Palestinian terrorists, from the relatives of the killers and from the PA TV host. The Fogel parents, Ehud and Ruth, were murdered, as were three of their children, aged 11 years, 4 years, and 2 months. The PA TV program, ‘For You,’ dedicated to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons let the mother and aunt of one of the murderers praise the terrorists as “heroes.” The PA TV host added, “We, for our part, also convey our greetings to them” (PA TV (Fatah), January 19 and 21, 2012, ‘On PA TV: Glorification of Fogel family murderers,’ Palestinian Media Watch bulletin, January 29, 2012).
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “We strongly praise the Netanyahu government for publicly raising the issue of incitement to hatred and murder against Jews within Abbas’ PA. It’s high time that the PA was made accountable for its flagrant and vicious anti-peace, pro-terror, pro-murder words and deeds.
“The world – and sadly, the Obama Administration – largely ignores and even whitewashes the PA on the issue of incitement, even when the Netanyahu government has raised the issue directly with Washington.
“More than any other major American Jewish organization, the ZOA, for the last 17 years, has relentlessly exposed this incitement in our own reports, speeches, articles, statements and appearances on TV and radio.
“The Obama Administration needs to support Israel in bringing the issue of Palestinian non-compliance on fighting terrorism and ending the incitement to hatred and murder that feeds it to the center of attention. President Obama himself has said more than once that Palestinians need to end incitement before progress can be made and it is essential that all possible U.S. pressure – including withholding of U.S. aid – be exerted on Abbas and the PA to comply. Without this, all hopes for any true and durable peace are illusions built on sand.
“The continuation by the Palestinian Arabs of the vilification and demonization of Jews and the promotion of hatred and violence against Jews in the PA schools, media, speeches, sermons and children’s camps makes peace absolutely impossible. We strongly urge Prime Minister Netanyahu to hold a series of press conferences with posters and pictures detailing this vile and relentless incitement against Jews and Israel, which includes the naming of schools, streets, sports teams and even computer centers after Jew-killing Arab terrorists.”