Israel rejects U.S.-Palestinian proposal for anti-incitement panel
Minister Steinitz: Committee would just serve as a cover for PA’s continued incitement.
By Barak Ravid | Feb. 4, 2014
The Israeli government has refused a Palestinian-American initiative to convene a tripartite committee to address incitement and education toward peace both in Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
A senior Israeli source said that Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz, who was authorized by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to deal with the issue, made it clear to the Americans that a condition for participating in such a committee would be a Palestinian confidence-building measure, like deleting provocative content from official PA websites.
Since taking office in 2009, Netanyahu has restored the issue of Palestinian incitement as a government talking point. Netanyahu has raised the issue at least once every few months to present the Palestinians as obstructing peace or creating an atmosphere that encourages terror.
In early January Netanyahu once again accused the Palestinians of systematic incitement against Israel in the media controlled by PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Netanyahu called an urgent cabinet meeting on the matter, during which the Strategic Affairs Ministry presented its “incitement index,” which it has been keeping since 2009 and presents every few months. Afterward Steinitz conducted a series of briefings for the local diplomatic corps and foreign press that included the screening of videos from the Palestinian media that he described as anti-Israel incitement.
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