Palestinian incitement and terrorism: Truth and lies

The Palestinian Authority, including its chairman Mahmoud Abbas, are using inflammatory Islamic rhetoric to spread false and malicious claims against Israel, and treat those who engage in the murder of Israelis as heroes. These statements amount to official incitement to violence and can only serve to exacerbate the situation.

Radical Islamists are bringing explosive devices, Molotov cocktails and other weaponry onto the Temple Mount, thus deliberately desecrating, damaging and endangering the holy site and turning it into a battle field. The militarization of a site revered by all should be universally condemned. The aim of these elements is to change the status quo and to prevent visits by non-Muslims on the Mount.

The status quo protects the right of Muslims to pray on the Temple Mount, as well as the freedom of all people, whether Muslims, Christians, Jews or others, to visit the Mount. Visits to the Temple Mount over the past year included nearly 4,000,000 entries by Muslims, about 200,000 entries by Christians, and about 12,000 entries by Jews.

Israel is making every effort to restore calm. To this end, as well as in order to lower tensions on the Temple Mount, the Prime Minister instructed political leaders to refrain from visiting the Temple Mount, including Government ministers and Members of the Knesset.

Israel expects the international community to condemn the recent terror attacks and to call for an end to the Palestinian incitement to violence.

Israel remains committed to dialogue with the Palestinian leadership and would like to see the renewal of direct peace talks as soon as possible.

PM Bureau (October 14): „Abu Mazen’s comments this evening were incitement and lies. The youth he is talking about is alive and hospitalized in Hadassah, after he stabbed an Israeli youth, who was riding a bicycle at the time. While Israel maintains the status quo on the Temple Mount, Abu Mazen, with his words of incitement, makes cynical use of religion and thus brings about terror.”

Over the past two weeks, numerous terrorist attacks have been perpetrated against Israeli citizens across the country. Seven Israelis have been murdered and 15 of the wounded are still hospitalized. Most of the terrorists are Palestinian youth under the age of 25 (the youngest attacker is 13 years old), incited to violence by a widespread Palestinian culture of hate.

For years, Palestinian youth has been indoctrinated in schools and on television to follow in the footsteps of arch-terrorists and to engage in indiscriminate violence against Jews. In recent years, this poisoning of children’s minds has been exacerbated by hate speech and calls for murder on the Palestinian social media, which are playing a critical role in the latest wave of terror.

The Palestinian Authority, as well as radical Islamist elements, are using inflammatory Islamic rhetoric to spread malicious lies against Israel:

• The Truth: Israel guarantees freedom of worship in Jerusalem for members of all faiths and is fully committed to maintaining the status quo on the Temple Mount, which protects the right of Muslims to pray on the Mount, as well as the freedom of all people, to visit the Mount.
• The Palestinian Lie: A false claim blaming Israel for seeking to alter the status quo on the Temple Mount. Given the high sensitivity of the issue, the fact that the Palestinian Authority propagates such lies amounts to official incitement to violence.

• The Truth: A 13 year old Palestinian teenager viciously attacked two Israelis on 12 October, one of them a 13 year old boy riding his bicycle. The Israeli boy was stabbed 15 times by the Palestinian boy and his cousin, and is hospitalized in critical condition. Police shot the attackers, wounding the Palestinian teenager, who is currently hospitalized in Hadassah University Hospital, and is stable and conscious. His cousin was killed.
• The Palestinian Lie: According to Palestinian media, the Palestinian teenager was killed arbitrarily by Israeli security forces. This propaganda deliberately ignores the fact that the teenagers were filmed on a local security camera waving knives and running through the streets in a murderous killing spree. Moreover, the teenager is very much alive, receiving treatment in an Israeli hospital.

Israel calls on Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian leaders to stop incitement to violence and to call for calm. Palestinian youths deserve to receive an education that will lay the basis for a better future of peaceful coexistence and cooperation with their Israeli neighbors.