Nothing harms the Palestinians' cause more than their continuing incitement and the spread of hatred against Israel, especially among the youth.
The adoption of nonviolent methods by the Palestinian Authority to advance the Palestinian cause is admirable and represents the most promising strategy to affect change. But for a nonviolent movement to serve the intended purpose of advancing the peace process, it must be accompanied by public narrative supportive of both the strategy and the reality of Israel. The continued incitement against Israel emanating from Palestinian private institutions, media, schools and refugee camps defeats the non-violent strategy and instead serves to strengthen the voices of radicals on both sides of the Green Line. Rather than advance Palestinian independence, this vitriol contributes to the solidification of the Israeli occupation in the name of security. It is time for the Palestinians to realize this, because continuing verbal and written onslaughts that support the use of violence and perpetuate radical political narratives are detrimental to their cause and must be stopped.
A renewed focus has been placed on the issue of Palestinian incitement, as the indiscriminate violence that it helps to create has returned. After the horrific murder of five members of the Fogel family, Prime Minister Netanyahu pointed to Palestinian incitement as a root cause. Subsequently, 27 United States Senators sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stating that "the Palestinian Authority must take unequivocal steps to condemn the incident and stop allowing the incitement that leads to such crimes ... Educating people toward peace is critical to establishing the conditions to a secure and lasting peace." A House version of the letter will soon be sent to President Obama. The legislators are right.
Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad and President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the murder of the Fogel family and the subsequent terror attack at a bus station in Jerusalem. They have also worked to dismantle much of the Hamas infrastructure in the West Bank, which served to widely disseminate violent anti-Israel rhetoric and imagery. Even more, in recent years, the Palestinian Authority has built a security apparatus that has dramatically reduced the number of terror attacks, led to greater freedom of movement for Palestinians, and consequently, economic growth. Meanwhile, the Fayyad plan to build the foundation for a Palestinian state has garnered historic levels of international sympathy and support for Palestinian independence.
Naming public infrastructure and roads after suicide bombers and their organizers, providing financial assistance to families of "martyrs" who have been killed while plotting or carrying out terror activities-as well as honoring them in public ceremonies-and depicting Israelis as ruthless murderers in television programs, all threaten to derail Palestinian independence. Yet, President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad have presided over all of the above in just the past several weeks. It is one thing to witness this type of incitement in Gaza where Hamas openly professes its desire to destroy Israel. However, it is an entirely different matter to witness it in the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority espouses a two-state solution alongside Israel. Furthermore, Israel is not completely convinced that the PA has fully disavowed violence, as evidenced by recent WikiLeaks documents indicating that the US-backed PA security forces have been reluctant to collect arms from, and apprehend, those linked with the Fatah affiliated Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, which has carried out numerous terror attacks against Israelis.
Many top PA officials privately recognize the severity of the problem. However, rather than address it, they are too often pointing at Israeli actions that undermine the voice of moderates in favor of radicals, arguing that they make it too difficult politically to oppose venomous statements against the occupier and be accused of collaboration. Particularly with the Palestinian Authority now in unity discussions with Hamas, officials are hesitant to clamp down on incitement and appear to be "soft" on Israel. To be sure, Israel's settlement construction in disputed areas and the ongoing nighttime raids in the West Bank by the Israel Defense Forces add fuel to the fire of incitement. Still, an environment conducive to peace must be established if a lasting two-state solution is to be achieved. Even more, what appears politically disadvantageous will ultimately prove to be quite the opposite. Creating an atmosphere that encourages peacemaking rather than incitement will lead to greater support from the international community and equally greater pressure on Israel to make concessions. After all, peace must start at home. Today, on both sides, the message entering the homes of too many Palestinians-and Israelis-is that of perpetual conflict, marketed by the ideology of extremists in the refugee camps on the one hand, and radical settlers on the other. Addressing these problems requires leadership that today is sorely lacking.
Meanwhile, the psychological damage caused by the radicalization of the two national narratives is enormous. Palestinians are soon to produce the fourth generation of children who will know nothing except the hated occupation and the continuing violent conflict. The previous generation is already poisoned by the pervasive glorification of terror and violent "resistance." It now falls to the responsibility of the Palestinian Authority, and Palestinian teachers, parents and community leaders to ensure that the next generation focuses on the potential of its future as a nation, rather than on demonizing an enemy that it cannot, and will not, defeat.
Moreover, although trust between two entities alone cannot offer the basis for any lasting peace agreement, incitement undermines the building of trust. Without a measure of trust, there is no room for even calculated risks, especially on matters of national security and peacemaking. A review of the reasons behind the collapses of the bi-lateral negotiations in 2000 and in 2008 show that a lack of trust was a major factor that led the Israeli side to rethink its position, as the gap between the Palestinian public's narrative and the required Israeli concessions was simply unbridgeable. Whereas the PA has legitimate grievances against Israel, including territorial claims, it must nevertheless acknowledge at least in words to the Palestinian public the existence of the State of Israel. That is, the reality and acceptance of co-existence alongside Israel will not be established, among the youth in particular, as long as the central reality on the ground is ignored. This is precisely why the PA has had major difficulties in making required concessions-in the minds of too many Palestinians, concessions are unnecessary to an entity that they have been taught does not have the legitimacy to exist or, even worse, can be defeated through violence.
Finally, with the Palestinian Authority now in discussions with Hamas regarding Palestinian unity, this becomes even more acute. For a unity government to succeed in its stated purpose-to advance the cause of Palestinian independence-Hamas too must end its self-destructive violent provocations against Israel, permanently renounce violence and end incitement instead of seeking another ceasefire. Such a first political step would offer a significant leap toward a sovereign Palestinian state, as well as the establishment of the beginning of trust and confidence between Israelis and Palestinians. Otherwise, even an international recognition of an independent Palestinian state based on the 1967 lines-as might be passed by United Nations General Assembly this September-will change very little on the ground because Israel has every right to protect its legitimate national security concerns.
Much is made of the weakness of the Palestinian leadership and the divisions within Palestinian society. But as the Fayyad Plan has shown, the Palestinian Authority is capable of capturing the attention and imagination of the international community in support of the Palestinian cause through proactive institution building and non-violence. Palestinians cannot allow incitement to jeopardize their national aspirations by providing such a clear and legitimate excuse for Israel to be reticent about negotiations toward an eventual two-state framework.
The PA can and must demonstrate that it is prepared to build a responsible government by ending incitement in all its forms. Doing so would make a lasting and meaningful impact on Palestinian and Israeli societies alike, by serving to simultaneously advance Palestinian independence and Israeli recognition.
The original version of this article was published in the Jerusalem Post on 4/8/11.
Follow Alon Ben-Meir on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AlonBenMeir
That is the only way for the Arab colonial empire to survive.
:))))
At the 2000 Camp David peace talks, when asked to provide a counter proposal to Barak's far reaching peace proposal, Arafat responded with a speech declaring that Jerusalem was never a Jewish capitol, thereby contradicting both the new and the old Testament.
Unfortunately it is what the Arabs believe, it is what they teach their children and it is the main reason why there is no peace in the middle east; the Arabs aren't interested in peace with people they (wrongly) feel have no connection to the land.
If you support the Israeli position based on ancient ownership are you ready to give your land and home to the nearest native American?
I believe that Israel has become over bearing, but those that have been in constant fighting with Israel have helped in creating that monster. It isn't exactly as if Israel is willing to become part of another Holocaust, and those who do not want to have some kind of peace where Israel is included - will just keep fighting over and over and over. "All or nothing plan" keeps those who have always wanted peace trapped.
"he Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-SE), which reviews textbooks from Israel, the Arab world and Iran, unveiled its 2011 report on PA school textbooks in a briefing with journalists at the headquarters of MediaCentral, in Jerusalem.
While respect for the environment and sustainable energy resources are taught to Palestinian students, IMPACT-SE found that textbooks blame Israel for all environmental problems.
“There is generally a total denial of the existence of Israel – and if there is an Israeli presence it is usually extremely negative,” said Eldad Pardo, an IMPACT-SE board member, and head of the organization’s Palestinian textbook research group. “For the next generation, there is no education at all about collaboration and no information about the many collaborations that already exist between Israelis and Palestinians in environmental and other areas.”
In geography textbooks, Israel usually does not appear in maps of the Middle East, instead “Palestine” is shown to encompass Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Jaffa is also shown on maps of Palestine, but Tel Aviv and other predominantly Jewish cities, such as Ramat Gan, kibbutzim and moshavim, are not displayed.
Another textbook included a map of the Old City of Jerusalem – which did not contain the Jewish Quarter. Meanwhile, in an additional example, a textbook printed a British Mandate postage stamp, but erased the Hebrew inscription “Palestine: The Land of Israel” that appeared on the original.
In addition, some textbooks described the Canaanites as an Arabic-speaking people whose land was stolen by Jews, and stated that Jews came from Europe to steal Palestine after the British conquered it in 1917.
Pardo, a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, also said Palestinian textbooks have been erasing Jewish claims to holy sites, such as the Western Wall and Rachel’s Tomb. For example, National Education, a textbook for seventh-graders published in 2010, refers to the Western Wall as the “Al-Buraq Wall,” and to Rachel’s Tomb as “Al-Bilal Mosque.”
IMPACT-SE also found that Palestinian textbooks include many references to martyrdom, death, jihad and refugees returning to cities and towns in Israel – and frequently demonize Israelis and Jews."
Other textbooks told students that “the rank of shahid stands above all ranks,” and included a Muslim hadith about the destruction of Jews by Muslims on the day of the resurrection"
Inconvenience of occupying a bunch that refuses to be occupied..
"And if Israel wanted all the PalestiniaÂns dead, they could do it, very easily. "
Never discount the need for positive PR to the |$rae|i regime(s)....
"This time, Israel intends to exact a very heavy price from Hamas, as the State of Israel and IDF have no solution that would fortify civilian transportation in the Gaza region. The only immediate solution is deterrence – and deterrence can only be achieved via plenty of fire. This time, officials will not accept a Hamas request for a lull via secret channels of UN officials in the area, as happened in the past. In the coming days, the cannons, missiles, tanks, jets and rockets will do the talking, until the blood quota is filled."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4054090,00.html
"Naming public infrastructure and roads after suicide bombers and their organizers"
Is this in bad taste? Obviously. And yet Israel also named public structures after Begin, et. al., and the Lehi Ribbon is seen as an honor rather than an abomination. Surely a gesture of good faith would require both sides to exorcise the less reputable aspects of their history?
"providing financial assistance to families of "martyrs""
Supporting the said "martyrs" is one thing; helping out the surviving family members is another. What do they expect the Palestinians to do, let them starve?
"... and depicting Israelis as ruthless murderers in television programs"
Please don't pretend that demonizing "the other side" is an exclusively Palestinian issue. I do remember a leaflet circulated among IDF members stating that, among other things - that Hamas is collaborating with the Papacy.
Should we not strive for a fair and balanced reporting?
Oh? And why is that? Israelis are inconvenienced by the said "incitements", and perhaps the odd attack or two once every blue moon; Palestinians suffer direct quality-of-life drop due to Israeli actions in the OT.
You are correct when you say it's a matter of scale; who is suffering more, however, is reversed.
Not to PalestiniaÂns it doesn't ,... Missles , HE and White Phosporus bombs dropped on Israelis would be considered terrorist activitys so when Israel does this to PalestiniaÂns it is just as much a terrorist activity and PalestiniaÂns respond with what they have . If PalestiniaÂns had exactly the same weapons as Israelis ..... Israelis would finally be really willing to talk peace instead of demanding a bigger piece ( of the land water ect)
i find it rather interesting that while yu cheer for those bloggers that hold ure viewpoint, that also write "one sided commentary" from their own point of view....nary a word.
I dont really care one way or another, but it does sound quite hypocritical.
when there is agreement, there is "cheerleading",
but when there is disagreement, it is "one sided".
like i said, i just find it rather interesting....
When I see a post that I agree with, I tend to *not* reply - because what's the point? Now of course, you might *think* (which is sort of a misuse of the word, but I digress) that I am "cheerleading" - but then again, why should I care about your perception of me?
- Jewish people have proven, time and again, to have the brains to thrive under the harshest of conditions imposed by openly antisemitic governments (see Venice)
- Jewish folks have a well earned reputation for success in science, philosophy, the arts, and business (just to mention a few)
- Many people in Israel are descendants of those who survived terrible persecution, and while persecuted they created works of philosophy and science that changed the world for the better
- As many have pointed out, there is no ethnic group or religious group that has produced more Nobel Prize winners
YET I am supposed to swallow the notion that a people as great as this, as clever as this, as creative as this, somehow they cannot figure out how to make their Palestinian neighbors prosperous? These people who have done so much for 2000+ years have suddenly met their intellectual match in Hamas, and now the ONLY STRATEGY they can come up with is "hit them back harder"?
Please! I fully support Israel's right to self defense, even when I don't agree with their strategy, but is this the best a great people can do? Just more missiles fired, etc? I don't buy it, and frankly, people who support Israel should have a lot more faith in the people of Israel and their ability to "think outside the box" and come up with something better than "hit them back harder" (which is the strategy of middle school boys)
Is it not what the great USA does in every war to its enemies? That's how the US saved the world from Germany.
However, I think the best way to defeat Hamas is for Israel to close its border to Gaza, stop all trade, cut electricity, and force Egypt to care for it. It will be a disaster for Gaza. No need for military action.
(2) Your strategy of slow starvation only shows how little creativity and intelligence you bring to a problem that is clearly far outside your understanding.
OTOH, because the Pal. leadership is so consistently bad, and the Pals have little to no power, I think it's time for Israel to step up and figure out a solution.
Again, read a quick history of Venice, where their government was consistently antisemitic in the extreme (locked in a gated island at night, forbidden to run most businesses, wearing special clothing to mark them, etc.) for centuries, but eventually the Jewish folks ended up running most of the trade anyway. That takes a lot of patience and smarts, so I don't get how now, with Israel having so much more power than all her neighbors (and certainly the Pals) they cannot be smarter than they are acting.
Suggested: http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/articles/middle-east/791-on-the-absurdity-of-a-qpalestinian-incitement-indexq
http://blog.pjvoice.com/diary/409/key-members-of-congress-sign-rothmanaustria-antiincitement-letter
It's not a matter of agreement. He's telling you some unpleasant truths about the Palestinians. Sorry if you can't handle it.
"Most Palestinian refugees fled to Syria in 1948 and came from northern Palestine, Safad, Haifa, Acre, Tiberias, and Nazareth. Some refugees arrived in Syria via Lebanon, some came from Galilee and the Hula Valley onto the Golan Heights, and others came directly from Palestine to Jordan to Syria (Mawed 1999: 19–25). By the summer of 1948, there were about 70,000 Palestinian refugees in Syria, the majority concentrated along the border area with Israel (Morris 1988: 262). In September 1948, an official of the International Committee of the Red Cross visited the areas where the refugees were camped. The refugees were initially housed in deserted military barracks in Sweida, Aleppo, Homs, and Hama. In 1949, Law no. 450 established the Palestine Arab Refugee Institution (PARI), which later was replaced by the General Authority for Palestine Arab Refugees (GAPAR), to manage the Palestinian refugee affairs (Sahli 1996). GAPAR’s responsibilities were refugee registration, relief assistance, finding employment opportunities for the refugees, and managing funds and contributions intended for them. GAPAR, with UNRWA, jointly administer the camps."
http://www.forcedmigration.org/guides/fmo017/fmo017.pdf
the palz are one of the largest recipients of worldwide aid, including US tax dollars, tax free charities, and tax free charities world wide.
http://www.bdsmovement.net
The repeat it often enough strategy of one side is always the aggressor comes across as a broken record and whatever latest incidents that get added to the list on one side only just makes this PR strategy more obvious.
You're right. See Ira Chernus:
"The Palestinians always start it -- or so the U.S. mass media tell us, as if it were incontrovertible fact. Even commentators who criticize the disproportionate scale of Israeli attacks typically add, 'But of course Israel has the right to defend itself, as any nation would.' Self-defense? That excuse just doesn’t stand up, for those few who know the facts. The facts are out there, though they’re difficult to find in the fog of media distortion."
"It’s permissible in U.S. mass media to question, occasionally, the scale of those attacks...But it’s not permissible to acknowledge that the Israelis fired first."
"Israel has maintained the latest ceasefire despite a bit of rocket and mortar fire from Gaza, which suggests that the Israelis know such firing is virtually always harmless -- and that the Israeli attacks on Gaza are neither self-defense nor revenge. The Israelis attack when they choose to, as part of a calculated plan to maintain their domination over Gaza -- and to maintain the current government in power with politically popular violence against Palestinians. That can’t be reported in the U.S. mass media, though, because it doesn’t fit the agreed upon story of Israel as the victim who fights only in self-defense."
"Americans have been conditioned for decades to believe the myth of Israel’s insecurity...With a myth so familiar and so satisfying, why go looking for facts?
See: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/04/12-3
It is apparent to any reasonable observer that the best path to peace and creation of a Palestinian state is to negotiate--and compromise--with Israel. Despite the fact that in private some Palestinian leaders acknowledge this, they are unwilling to admit so publicly; The Palestinian Papers revelations and their swift public denial are a case in point.
The continued official incitement is playing to that "win through strength" notion, but that kind of blindness to reality ultimately is self-defeating and destructive to the true Palestinian cause of an independent state. What the Palestinian leadership should be doing is promoting the idea that compromise, not defiance, will get them what they want.
The hatred and animosity on both sides built through decades of fighting won't disappear overnight. But the official incitement by the Palestinians only perpetuates the same vicious cycle of violence and prevents Palestinians from acknowledging the need for concessions to make peace.
Alon Ben-Meir"
Is that another fake oops I mean mockery quote?