(Communicated by the Bureau of Deputy Foreign Minister Ayalon)
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon today (1 February 2010) participated in a press conference with the TaxPayers' Alliance, a London-based advocacy group, to highlight how international donor funds provided to the Palestinian Authority are being directly used for incitement and hate education.
Danny Ayalon highlighted the fact that hate education and incitement is one of the major problems in the Palestinian Authority. "Everyone talks about Hamas, which is obvious, but the PA, Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas also engage in incitement and have created a 'culture of hate'," Ayalon said. "The recent Fatah Conference, which we helped facilitate, came out with very negative messages which emphasized education to the armed struggle."
"The Fatah Constitution still calls for the eradication of the State of Israel and this was reaffirmed during the recent conference. This is a major problem. As long as Israel is not accepted as a legitimate and natural part of this region then we will not see a desire for peace," Ayalon continued.
Ayalon stressed that stopping incitement was important for the political process to proceed. "If they do not stop incitement then we can't move forward. If the Palestinians want to create a new state in the Middle East then we can not allow it to become another failed or terrorist state. Incitement should be stopped before a Palestinian state comes into existence and not after," Ayalon said.
Matthew Sinclair, Research Director of the TaxPayers' Alliance, gave some examples of incitement in the Palestinian Authority. He gave one recent example of a Palestinian Imam calling Jews "the enemy of humanity" and calling for a fight against Jews and "to kill them" during a sermon last Friday on the official government Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation television station.
Sinclair stated that it is an issue for British and European taxpayers because their British government and the European Union fund the Palestinian Authority to the tune of tens of millions every year. "This is an issue that starts from Western taxpayers interests," Sinclair said.