Israel Matzav

Israeli incitement?

Wafa, the official 'Palestinian Authority' website, publishes a list of items that it claims are 'incitement' by the Israeli media in the aftermath of the massacre of the Fogel family of Itamar (and in response to Israel's incitement index that measures 'Palestinian' incitement to murder Jews). Even assuming that all of the items were actually written and accurately translated into English (I have not checked either of those points), the collection shows more than anything else how lying (or clueless) the 'Palestinian Authority' is.

First and foremost, in a democracy people are entitled to their own opinions. That doesn't mean you're allowed to call to murder someone, but to say that Israel ought to take control of more land or build more housing units on land it already controls is not a call to murder someone.

Moreover, there's a huge difference between an opinion expressed on the pages of Yediot or HaModia (to cite two of the newspapers in the report) and one expressed in al-Hayat al-Jadida. The Israeli newspapers are privately controlled and therefore the government has no responsibility for their contents. The 'Palestinian' one is controlled by the 'Palestinian Authority' which is therefore responsible for its content.

Furthermore, most of the items there are not incitement. A warning about Arabs carrying weapons is not incitement - it's a call for caution and vigilance. If a police commander is warning about large warehouses of weapons in Northern Israel that are controlled by Arabs, that's not incitement - it's a warning for caution and perhaps a call for police action (calling for police actions is not a call for incitement - it's a call for law enforcement).

A claim that Israelis will pay in blood for (God forbid) the establishment of a 'Palestinian state' is not a call to murder 'Palestinians.' It's the expression of a political opinion (and unfortunately, probably true).

Calls to re-examine our relationship with the 'Palestinian Authority' are not calls for murder. They are calls for one political entity to examine its relationship with another political entity. It's not incitement.

I could go on but you get my drift.

The problem with this sort of thing is that it is likely to be waved around by members of the 'international community' who have not even read it as 'proof' that 'Israel incites too.' Goebbels would have called it a great lie. And unfortunately, it is one that is likely to grow on us.

Read the whole thing and figure out how you would answer these claims.

The bumper sticker at the top was popular during the Oslo terror war. It says "if there are no Arabs, there are no terror attacks." Is that incitement? I would argue that it's a statement of fact. In any event, it does not call for murdering Arabs, although it arguably calls for expelling them from the Jewish state if they cannot live in peace with us.

Labels: Palestinian incitement

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:38 PM