Inexcusable Palestinian Terror: A Philosophy of Articulated Hate - by R. Uri Pilichowski

...I have written a great deal of my empathy for the Palestinian situation. But my empathy doesn’t excuse the deep-seated hate found in Palestinian communities, its schools, and the general support for terror found among the people.

R. Uri Pilichowski..
TOI Blog..
25 August '20..

Israeli reporter Carmel Dangor tweeted that the past 365 days is the first time since 1964 where no civilians in Israel were killed by a terrorist.

This is an incredible statistic that should make us all breathe a sigh of relief. Yet, there are two important caveats to this statistic that should give us pause; First, this statistic speaks to zero Israeli deaths, but does not speak to Israeli injuries, of which there were too many due to Palestinian terrorism. Second, this statistic doesn’t address the amount of Palestinian terrorist attacks. One might be misled and think that Palestinians have stopped their attacks. Palestinians attempt more than three terrorist attacks a day against Israelis.

This statistic merely speaks to how many Israelis have died. If the amount of Palestinian terror attacks haven’t decreased, what has caused fewer Jewish deaths?

I’d suggest two causes have led to less Jewish deaths this past year than any year since 1964. First, God’s protection. When a Palestinian terrorist aims his car at Israelis and hits the gas pedal and the car malfunctions or a group of Palestinians working on a bomb trigger it too early and blow themselves up (as happened yesterday to four intelligence challenged Palestinian terrorists) that’s God’s Providence defending His people. Second, Israeli security forces have gotten better and better every year. From the horrible years of the second Palestinian intifada when over 1,000 Israelis were dying each year to this year with zero deaths, the security forces have done a better and better job each year.

It is important to note that there is never any excuse for Palestinian Arab terror. Often excused by Palestinian sympathizers as “resistance,” terrorism isn’t political activism, it is hate based violence. 67% of Palestinian Arabs support violence against Israelis. That is a nauseatingly high number of people who support violence.

Where does Palestinian hate come from? Many will argue it doesn’t matter. They maintain that we should call terror wrong and leave it at that. I maintain that the only way to stop hate is to understand it. Hate isn’t just a terrorist attack. Violence is hate put into action, but hate is a philosophy. When you hear West Bank Palestinians call for an end to the state of Israel, and when Gazan Palestinians call for the death of Jews, you’re witnessing a philosophy of hate being articulated.

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Surprise? PA falsely blames Israel for Coronavirus spike while inventing an alternate reality - by Maurice Hirsch, Adv

One thing is clear: For the PA, the Coronavirus crisis is just another excuse to promote hatred of Israel, even to the detriment of the international fight against the virus.

Maurice Hirsch, Adv..
Palestinian Media Watch..
21 July '20..

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the PA has inverted reality. The PA has repeatedly blamed Israel for the spread of the Coronavirus, never telling its people that Israel has given hundreds of tons of equipment as well as ongoing medical training to the PA to prevent the spread of the virus, as reported by Palestinian Media Watch.

As the PA is experiencing a second wave of the virus, the PA has initiated a second wave of libels coming from different PA leaders.

One example is the libel of Chairman of the PA-funded Prisoners’ Club Qadura Fares, who accused Israel of deliberately trying to spread the virus within the PA:

“[Israel] is striving to spread the Coronavirus via the invasion of soldiers who are likely to be sick into Palestinian homes and mixing with the civilians and prisoners.” 

 [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 17, 2020]

Another example was delivered by Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh, who gave two different explanations for the rise in the number of infected with the virus. On the one hand, Shtayyeh resorted to the PA’s standard excuse – blame Israel. On the other, he attributed the blame to Palestinian weddings and mourners’ tents.

Israel is to blame, according to Shtayyeh, due to the movement of people and goods from Israel and Jordan across the 1949 armistice lines:

“The [PA] government will send a request to the UNTSO (UN Truce Supervision Organization) UN forces to supervise the movement at the crossings located on the June 4, 1967 borders (i.e., 1949 armistice lines) in order to control the entry and exit to and from the State of Palestine… The main reason for the severe trend of increase of the Coronavirus… is the fact that the Palestinian [PA] Security Forces are being prevented [by Israel] from fulfilling their role and supervising the movement at these crossings… The fact that we do not control the crossings and borders – in addition to the occupation’s measures – is the main reason for the increase in the number of those infected with the Coronavirus.” 

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 7, 2020]

These statements are a product of the PA’s desire to promote hatred of Israel and inventing an alternative reality, in which the 1949 armistice lines are “borders” of the “State of Palestine,” that the PA must control.

Firstly, the 1949 armistice line between Israel and Jordan was never a “border”, as the website of the UNTSO clearly states:

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Surprise? Palestinians Ramp Up Incitement to Murder Jews - by Dr. Edy Cohen

The Palestinians, always quick to adapt to new circumstances, are taking full advantage of the coronavirus crisis to incite the murder of Jews.

Dr. Edy Cohen..
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,599..
07 June '20..
Link: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/palestinians-incitement-murder/

Ever since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, many influential Palestinians have maliciously spread the lie that Israel is using the virus as a biological weapon and is deliberately spreading it in the Palestinian areas.

These slanders start at the top. Palestinian PM Muhammad Shtayyeh launched a campaign pushing this incitement, and almost immediately thereafter, other senior Palestinian officials, including government spokesman Ibrahim Milhem, the health minister, and city mayors, all issued similar statements. They claimed Israel intentionally spread the virus through nearby infected Jewish residents and through infected Palestinian workers returning from work in Israel.

Palestinian political cartoonists quickly spread the smear with efforts like this:

A new trend in Palestinian political cartooning emerged with the stoning killing by a Palestinian of 21-year-old IDF soldier Amit Ben Yigal last month. A new campaign with the theme “If you don’t have a gun, kill an IDF soldier with a rock” was widely circulated on social networks. Many such cartoons appeared on Fatah’s official website and in the Palestinian press, including these:

Anyone surprised that Coronavirus can stop economies but not Palestinian Authority hate? - by Nan Jacques Zilberdik

Coronavirus can stop economies but not PA hate: PA continues terror and Martyrdom promotion – through official TV and radio

Nan Jacques Zilberdik..
Palestinian Media Watch..
17 April '20..

While the Corona pandemic is interfering with daily life and challenging economies around the globe, one sphere is unaffected. The Palestinian Authority is not letting the virus obstruct its obsessive promotion of violence and terror to Palestinians. The following are songs broadcast during the crisis that encourage continued terror, promote Martyrdom-death for children, and congratulate mothers on the dying of their sons as “Martyrs.” Several of them are songs that have been exposed in the past by Palestinian Media Watch:

“No force in the world can remove the weapon from my hand”



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As Israel Saves Their Lives, Palestinians Revive Blood Libels - by Khaled Abu Toameh

Israel is training Palestinian medical professionals to combat the spread of a dangerous disease at the very moment that Palestinian leaders are continuing to poison the hearts and minds of their people against the very people working to help them. While this sort of perverse Palestinian payback is nothing new, it nonetheless ought to interest anyone in the international community who is considering contributing to the Palestinian cause.

Khaled Abu Toameh..
Gatestone Institute..
09 March '20..

Israel is making a massive effort to help the Palestinians contain a coronavirus outbreak after several Palestinians in Bethlehem tested positive for the disease. In return, the Palestinians are continuing to spread blood libels against Israel and the Jews.

On March 5, the Israeli Defense Ministry announced that it has been working in the past two weeks to assist the Palestinian Authority in "curbing and preventing a coronavirus outbreak" in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israeli authorities have transferred 250 coronavirus test kits from Israel to the Palestinians. Furthermore, joint training sessions for Israeli and Palestinian medical personnel were organized for the professional study of the virus, the protection of medical personnel, and the testing of patients suspected of being virus carriers.

"We will continue working to help the Palestinian authorities curb the spread of the virus, both as an Israeli interest and for humanitarian reasons," said Israeli Civil Administration Health Coordinator Dalia Basa. "We will expand medical training to Palestinian personnel as much as possible, as well as the transfer of medical equipment to the Palestinian healthcare system."

Earlier, the Israeli authorities announced that they had facilitated 105,495 humanitarian crossings for Palestinians to receive medical treatment in Israel during the last week of February.

Yet, rather than showing gratitude toward the Israeli authorities for their assistance, the Palestinian Authority and its media outlets and officials are continuing their campaign of incitement against Israel. They are also continuing to incite Palestinians against Israel by spreading lies about Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers. The incitement and lies promote anti-Semitism and even endanger the lives of Jews around the world.

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Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem, is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at Gatestone Institute.

After Inciting Violence, Abbas Comes to New York To Fight a Peace Plan - by Bassan Tawil

...Finally, a word of advice for the families of Nafleh, Abu Tabeekh and Haddad: hold Abbas, not Israel, responsible for the death of your sons. If they had not attacked soldiers with firebombs, the three young men would be alive today. The blood of these men is on the hands of Abbas and his officials, who are continuing to wage a massive campaign of incitement against the US and Israel for no reason but the publication of a plan that offers the Palestinian people hope for a better future.

Bassam Tawil..
Gatestone Institute..
10 February '20..

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is on his way to the United Nations Security Council to speak against US President Donald Trump's plan for Middle East peace -- "Peace to Prosperity" -- after having incited his people, yet again, against Israel and the US.

Abbas's non-stop incitement has resulted so far in the deaths of three young Palestinian men in the West Bank -- Nidal Ahmed Nafleh, 19, Yazan Munther Abu Tabeekh, 19, and Mohammed Salman Haddad, 17 -- who were killed by the Israel Defense Forces while attacking soldiers with firebombs.

Why did the three men take to the streets to attack IDF soldiers? Because Abbas called on his people to step up "popular resistance activities" to protest the ostensible Trump "conspiracy."

Such incitement is seen by Palestinians in the West Bank as a green light to attack Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers with rocks, knives, car-rammings, explosive devices and firebombs.

Nafleh, Abu Tabeekh and Haddad most likely never even read the 180-page peace plan against which they were they were protesting. They undoubtedly went out to attack IDF soldiers because they were informed by their leaders, including Abbas, that Trump's plan is an "American-Zionist plot to liquidate the Palestinian cause." The plan, on the contrary, offers the Palestinians most of the land captured by Israel in 1967 that more than doubles their territory; a government with realized human rights and institutions of democracy, such as a free press, and $50 billion -- all as part of an extraordinary opportunity to build a flourishing Palestinian State.

As the journalist, Tom Gross, observed:

"Other stateless people can only dream of being offered independence and $50bn by the US president.... If only the Yazidis or Baluchis or Kurds or Rohingya Muslims were so lucky."

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The Mohammed al-Dura Affair: A Little Boy and a Big Controversy - by Raymond M. Berger

When civilian deaths result from military action it is important to investigate the circumstances, if for no other reason than to help military officials avoid unnecessary civilian casualties in the future. But this motivation does not apply to an unscrupulous enemy that deliberately causes civilian deaths on both sides of the conflict in order to score propaganda points. If little Mohammed was indeed killed, he is yet another victim of the Arab war to kill and expel the Jews from the Middle East.

Raymond M. Berger..
Real Bullet Points/ TOI Blog..
30 September '19..

According to news reports at the time, on September 30, 2000, 12 year old Mohammed al-Dura, from the Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza strip, was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers.

Since that day there has been a maze of contradictory news reports, investigations, forensic analyses and legal proceedings. Various investigators and others have questioned whether Mohammed was shot at all and whether Palestinians staged the incident. To this day no one knows for sure.

The al-Dura incident is now a small part of a long history of Arab-Jewish conflict. Revisiting the incident and its aftermath is not an academic exercise. Rather, it carries lessons about a conflict between two peoples, the wages of armed attacks by those who care little about human life, and the use of propaganda to perpetuate blame and hate.

The Story Takes on a Life of Its Own


What is certain is that Muslims across the world used images of a dead Mohammed al-Dura to incite against Israel.

A photo of little Mohammed crouching behind his father became an iconic image of war, much like the famous photo of the Jewish boy in the Warsaw ghetto, with hands raised over his head, or the Vietnamese girl on fire after being doused with napalm.

Across the Muslim world, the photo of Mohammed was printed in newspapers. Video of the incident was played and re-played on television broadcasts. Arab governments named parks and streets in Mohammed’s honor.

When al-Qaeda murdered the Jewish-American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002, they broadcast a video of the killing that showed an image of Mohammed al-Dura in the background. After the September 11 attacks against the US, Osama bin Laden mentioned the al-Dura incident in a warning to President George Bush. Arab countries issued postage stamps bearing images of a terrified Mohammed cowering behind his father, as son and father take cover. Commentators argued that these images were behind the 2000 lynching of two Israeli soldiers in Ramallah. After French News Channel 2 broadcast video purporting to show that Israeli soldiers had killed Mohammed, anti-Semitism in France increased.

The Intifada as Background

In order to understand the Mohammed al-Dura incident, it is vital to know that it happened in the context of a Palestinian war against Israel.

The day before the shooting, the Palestinians’ Second Intifada against Israel began.

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Saluting PMW's great success: Fatah’s terror promoting Facebook page closed

Following PMW’s two major reports and a two-week public pressure campaign, as of this morning Fatah’s Facebook page is no longer accessible. Yesterday Palestinian media accused PMW of “waging a new war against the Fatah Movement’s Facebook page,” while the editor of Fatah’s page defended its terror promotion

Itamar Marcus..
Palestinian Media Watch..
25 September '19..

Following Palestinian Media Watch's two major reports and a two-week public pressure campaign, Fatah’s terror promoting Facebook page is closed as of this morning. PMW's campaign started in February this year when we released a detailed report about Fatah’s Facebook page documenting its terror glorification and incitement to violence during 2018. The report showed that Fatah’s content was in direct violation of Facebook’s guidelines. Inexplicably, Facebook refused to close the page at that time.

PMW followed up with a new report released earlier this month, documenting the terror promoting content on Fatah’s Facebook page during the first 6 months of 2019, which was likewise sent to Facebook. In addition, PMW also launched a public social media campaign with many partner organizations worldwide, developed by volunteers at ACT-IL, which was aimed at Facebook's directors, urging them to close down Fatah’s page. The campaign included daily tweets and Facebook posts showing Fatah’s terror promoting content on Facebook, and also included a public campaign through which individuals and organizations sent a pre-written letter of protest to Facebook. Thousands of ACT-IL activists from 74 countries and other PMW partner organizations sent thousands of emails to Facebook's policy directors, and made thousands of reports directly on the page through Facebook.

As of this morning Fatah's Facebook page is down, and this is the response when trying to access the page:

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