Video shows Palestinians how to sharpen knives for stabbings

A video posted to YouTube on Tuesday instructs would-be Palestinian stabbers on how to sharpen their knives and offers several techniques for using them against Israelis.

The video, titled “West Bank Intifada — Preparing a Knife for Stabbing,” was uploaded amidst a wave of Palestinian stabbing attacks against Israeli civilians as well as security personnel throughout Israel and the West Bank.

In the clip highlighted by the Middle East Media Research Center (MEMRI), a masked, uniformed man gestures and demonstrates silently to the camera, against the backdrop of a Palestinian flag and an assault rifle.

He chooses a knife, then proceeds to sharpen it using various tools, including a whetstone and what appears to be a disc cutter. He then tests the sharpness of the blade on his arms.

Afterwards the masked man shows various methods of using the knife, including stabbing and slicing motions to the abdomen and neck of the intended victim.

The video is the latest in online content advising and instructing the Palestinian public on attack methods.

Videos and photos recently posted to Facebook and Twitter have shown detailed guidance on how to stab Israelis, methods for maximum bodily damage, and ways to create deadly weapons to carry out attacks.

The posts have been published under various headings created in recent weeks such as “The Intifada Has Started,” “The Third Intifada,” “The Knife Intifada,” “Poison the Knife before You Stab,” and “Slaughtering the Jews,” according to information made available by MEMRI.

Multiple Facebook pages, including one called “Intifada Youth Coalition – Palestine,” posted a video demonstrating how to carry out a deadly stabbing.

A Facebook page called “Jerusalem Now” posted a video demonstrating how to stab and how to snatch a soldier’s weapon.

Some posts show potential stabbers how to make their attacks more deadly. On Wednesday a Gazan user named Zahran Barbah posted an anatomical chart showing which parts of the body to aim for when stabbing a victim.

In another trend, instructional videos have given information on how to adapt ordinary kitchen knives into deadly attack weapons.

https://www.facebook.com/Intifada.Coalition/videos/1685264191710265/?permPage=1

Two weeks ago YouTube removed a video from its website that appeared to encourage stabbing attacks against Jews and Israelis after Israel’s Foreign Ministry complained that the clip promoted terror.

In a letter to YouTube’s parent company, Google, Jerusalem officials said the posted clips contained “violent and inciting content in which terrorists are praised and their acts staged in videos to promote further violence against Israelis and Jews.”

The removed video showed a keffiyeh-clad young Palestinian man looking at footage on his phone of recent clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian rioters at the Temple Mount. The setting appeared to depict Jerusalem’s Old City. Two “Jewish” characters — they were decked out in stereotypical religious clothing — walked by, harassing and kicking young children playing soccer. That was seen to enrage the young man, who was then portrayed stabbing one of the “Jewish” men in the heart and then chasing down the other to slash his throat.

YouTube removed the video from the Hamas channel where it was first posted and circulated widely, but it was still available elsewhere on YouTube and on Facebook.

The website said the graphic 45-second clip violated YouTube’s policy of prohibiting hate speech.

Raoul Wootliff contributed to this report.