PA incitement behind soaring anti-Semitism, Netanyahu says

Official “incitement” by the Palestinian Authority stands behind a sky-high rate of anti-Semitism in the West Bank and Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday.

His comments came several days after a survey by the Anti-Defamation League found that 93 percent of people in the Palestinian territories harbor anti-Semitic attitudes, the highest rate in the world.

“This is the result of the Palestinian Authority’s unceasing incitement, which distorts the image of the State of Israel and the Jewish People, as we have known in other places in our past,” Netanyahu said at the start of the meeting.

The ADL’s global survey, released May 13, found that 26 percent of those polled — representing approximately 1.1 billion adults worldwide — harbor deeply anti-Semitic views. More than 53,000 people were surveyed in 102 countries and territories covering approximately 86 percent of the world’s population.

Netanyahu also lashed out at Palestinians for marking the “Nakba,” or catastrophe, used to commemorate Palestinian displacement in the wake of Israel’s creation.

“Whoever sees the establishment of the State of Israel and its continued existence as a disaster does not want peace,” he said.

On May 15, Palestinians marked Nakba Day with a 66-second siren in Ramallah. Later, protests in the West Bank turned violent and two Palestinian teens were shot dead by Israeli troops.

Violent protests erupted in several locations the following day, after the teens’ join funeral.

Palestinians said the two were killed by live ammunition, but Border Police sources insisted troops had only used rubber-coated bullets. The IDF said it was investigating the incident.