On Monday, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) applauded the House of Representatives for passing a bipartisan resolution condemning the Palestinian Authority (PA) for incitement.
Statements by PA officials have encouraged a series of vicious knife-stabbing incidents, among other acts of violence, against innocent Jewish civilians in Israel.
House Resolution 293 (H. Res 293) was introduced and authored by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) on June 3 of this year and passed on October 22. Royce issued the following accompanying statement following its passage:
Since mid-September, Israel has suffered from a wave of terrorist attacks, fueled by hatred-filled incitement. Palestinian militants, who are being encouraged and praised by Palestinian Authority officials, have attacked hundreds of Israelis, mainly with knives. Victims include the elderly and even a two-year old toddler.
The U.S. Congress is speaking loudly and clearly–Palestinian officials must work to restore calm and renounce violent statements. And the Administration must finally tackle the incitement issue with the seriousness that it deserves.
The resolution notes that “in spite of the Oslo II agreement, the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas repeatedly describes released Palestinian terrorists as ‘heroes'” and that the “Palestinian Authority pays monthly ‘salaries’ to families of Palestinian terrorists incarcerated in Israel.”
The resolution also refers to a November 2014 address commemorating the 10th anniversary of Yasser Arafat’s death, in which Abbas said that Israel has no claim to Jerusalem and that “he will not allow the Temple Mount to be ‘’contaminated by Jews’, adding that Jewish prayer at the site would cause a ‘devastating religious war.'”
Some of the bill’s co-sponsors include Rep. Juan Vargas (D-CA), Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY), Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL), Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA). There were 39 Republican and 26 Democratic co-sponsors in total.
The resolution’s passage followed an October 22 Committee hearing entitled “Words Have Consequences: Palestinian Authority Incitement to Violence.”
Last week, the Paris, France-based UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)made “an attempt to distort history” in favor of Palestinians by attempting to pass a vote declaring Judaism’s holiest site, the Western Wall, a Muslim holy site.
After facing fierce opposition and condemnation from the State of Israel and American Jewish groups, the Arab nations dropped that part of their resolution. However, according to the Forward, they still voted 26-6 in favor of the resolution, with 25 abstentions, to recognize Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem and the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron as Muslim sites that are part of a non-existent Palestinian state.
Both of those sites are listed as holy to Jews in the Torah and recognized as the burial places of Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs.
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