Deputy FM: Islamic State ‘mentality’ has reached Palestinians

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely tells the BBC that the use of Palestinian children to attack Israeli children shows that the mindset of the Islamic State has infiltrated into the Palestinian consciousness.

“With these brutal knifings of Israeli children by Palestinian children we are seeing the IS mentality entering the Palestinian arena,” she says.

Hotovely disputes arguments that the recent violence was down to a failure to make progress in peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

“This abuse of children is a crossing of a red line. Palestinian terror has nothing to do with the stalled political process as has been claimed. The most horrific attacks occurred during the heyday of the Oslo Accords in the 1990s and following Israel’s far reaching proposals at Camp David in 2000.”

The deputy minister also accuses the Palestinian leadership of indoctrinating children, which she says is tantamount to aiding those who set out to kill Israelis.

“By condoning these acts of terror and following years of indoctrination of Palestinian children toward hatred of Israel and Jews, the Palestinian leadership is acting as an accomplice to murder,” she says.

— Raphael Ahren