Knives of Jerusalem: British paper reports on a chilling example of Palestinian extremism

On Oct. 25, The Sunday Times did what few mainstream British papers would do: they published a story – documented and relentlessly pursued by blogger Elder of Ziyon – about antisemitism and incitement by employees at UNRWA.  

Yesterday, Oct. 26, a different widely read paper in the UK – The Telegraph – similarly covered another regional issue rarely pursued by the UK media: Palestinian extremism and support for violence against Jews.

telegraphThe article, by Raf Sanchez, focused on a story reported by MEMRIPalestinian Media Watch and Israeli news sites, about Palestinian parents who named their baby “Knife of Jerusalem” in solidarity with the terrorists who’ve been stabbing Israeli soldiers and civilians in recent weeks.  Since Oct 1st, 11 Israelis have been killed and 126 wounded in Arab attacks.

The Telegraph provides some background:

A man identified as a friend of the family said he had proposed the idea [to the family] after watching a social media video exhorting Palestinians to attack Israelis.

“He said that he did not know what name to give the baby. We were watching the music video ‘Lovers of Stabbing’ on TV, and I said: ‘How about Knife of Jerusalem?’ He said: ‘How can I call him Knife?'”

The friend added: “This is a really sweet name. It’s the least we can do for Jerusalem.”

The Telegraph report included the following MEMRI video:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb4km-6eET0]

Of course, those following the issue of Palestinian incitement, antisemitism and extremism wouldn’t be surprised by the latest example reported by The Telegraph.  

Unfortunately, most British news consumers who rely on mainstream dailies for their information about the Middle East likely have no idea about the extent of the problem, as such issues are rarely even noted in reports contextualizing Palestinian violence.  Despite the fact that the most recent attacks have been widely encouraged on Palestinian social media sites, and applauded by Palestinian Authority and Fatah officials, most reports still try to explain the violence as a reaction to the stalled peace process, settlements or “tensions” over the Temple Mount. 

However, you simply can’t fully understand terrorism – or the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict more broadly – without first understanding the persistent problems of racism and extremism within Palestinian society, and we applaud The Telegraph for providing their readers with a recent example of this disturbing phenomenon.

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