New House legislation proposed by the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee would make $400 million in annual U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) contingent upon the President certifying that the PA among other things “no longer engages in a pattern of incitement against the United States or Israel.” Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) introduced the legislation – which comes amid concentrated efforts by Secretary of State John Kerry to secure a U.S.-backed Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.
In a statement, Chairman Royce said, “As Secretary of State John Kerry engages in negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, Congress will make it clear to the Palestinian Authority that continuing anti-Israel incitement to violence through PA-controlled media outlets must cease.”
“No more Palestinian Authority-funded Facebook pages or children’s magazines holding up Hitler as a positive role model. Not only must the PA cease incitement, it should engage in a clear, conclusive and deliberate effort to officially and publicly repudiate the providers of such hatred. The prospect of a real, lasting peace can only be built on the foundation of a culture of tolerance — one that renders such rhetoric politically unacceptable,” he said.
U.S. and Israeli diplomats have become increasingly emphatic in criticizing Palestinian leaders for engaging in anti-Israel and anti-Jewish incitement, and a spike in recent violence has been linked in part to speeches honoring terrorists and exhortations toward violence. Last week an official PA television program broadcast a song calling on viewers to “pull the trigger” to “redeem Jerusalem.” Also in recent days, PA President Mahmoud Abbas was filmed sitting and applauding as Religious Affairs Minister Mahmoud Al-Habbash called on Palestinians to engage in a “jihad in Jerusalem.” Abbas himself had only days ago given a fiery speech rejecting Israel’s legitimacy as the nation-state of the Jewish people and holding out the promise of Palestinian refugees and their descendants flooding across Israel’s borders.
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