Telegraph reporter is skeptical about Israeli 'claims' of Palestinian incitement

It’s bad enough that foreign correspondents covering the region rarely if ever report on the constant incitement to violence by Hamas, Fatah and Palestinian Authority officials. But, expressions of skepticism by reporters over Israeli “claims” regarding the problem of incitement represent an even more egregious example of biased reporting, as evidence attesting to this disturbing phenomenon is ubiquitous.
Robert TaitThe Telegraph’s correspondent for Israel and the Palestinian territories, concluded his report (What is behind Israel’s spate of ‘lone wolf’ terror attacks?, Jan. 21st) on Wednesday’s Palestinian terror attack in Tel Aviv – in the context of other such attacks in recent months – thusly:

Such attacks, apparently spontaneous and carried out without any obvious group collaboration, are a headache for Israel’s security services, since they are almost impossible to prevent or predict in advance through good intelligence.
The resulting frustration was apparent on Wednesday as the country’s political establishment, from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu downwards, pointed the finger, without presenting concrete evidence, at virtually the entire Palestinian political spectrum, including the Palestinian Authority and Hamas – accusing it of complicity through “incitement”.

Tait’s incredulousness in the face of Israeli “claims” over the role played by Palestinian incitement is quite remarkable.  As Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) demonstrates, evidence abounds attesting to “ongoing violence promotion” carried out by the Palestinian Authority and Fatah. PMW recently reported that violence promotion in recent months has specifically mentioned “stabbings” and the use “knives and cleavers”.

  • Shortly after terrorists murdered five Israelis in a Jerusalem synagogue on Nov. 18th, using knives and axes, Mahmoud Abbas’s advisor Sultan Abu Al-Einein praised the terrorists and their weapons:

“Blessed be your quality weapons, the wheels of your cars,
your axes and kitchen knives… because [they are
being used] according to Allah’s will.
We are the soldiers of Allah.”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vszu50hrBm8]

  •  Following the attempted stabbing of two soldiers in Jerusalem late December, the official PA daily ran an op-ed that described the attempted murder as Palestinian “pride”:

“Every Palestinian has the right to feel proud of what is seen in the video of the stabbing of the two soldiers in Jerusalem…Now, every Palestinian raises his hand holding a knife together with this young Palestinian, and stabs the Zionists

  • Last week, Hamas activists at Al-Quds University produced a video in which they enacted the murder of religious Jews. One Jew in the video is stabbed to death.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNSsb1O9FfA]

  • As blogger Elder of Ziyon and others have reported, the following poster was published on Fatah’s Facebook page (with their official logo) earlier in the week.

fatah poster
Translation: We began with stones and we will end up with a state

You simply can’t properly contextualize Palestinian violence without first recognizing the injurious impact of such officially sponsored incitement.
Thus, journalists like Robert Tait, through such omissions and obfuscations, continue to ensure that their readers are unlikely to fully understand one of the major root causes of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict.

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