I am Kay Wilson, a British-born Jewish Israeli, the survivor of a brutal Palestinian terror attack in which Kristine Luken Z”L, a friend and an American Christian, was slaughtered for one reason: according to the confession of those who murdered her, they mistakenly thought she was Jewish.
I do not want what happened to me or Kristine to happen to others. That is why I write. That is why I speak. That is why I am an advocate for Israel and a peace activist.
Kristine bravely fought, writhed and wriggled to dodge the foot-long serrated steel blade. In vain. I watched the terrorist chop her up in front of my eyes. I am no longer stunned by the blows that shattered my own bones; I am stunned by the banality with which two men who were once little boys could repeatedly and nonchalantly hack at two defenseless women.
In court, they exhibited no remorse. Giggling through the hearing, the sons of evil were unable or unwilling to perceive that their unabated savagery was anything more serious than parking on the sidewalk.
It takes a devilish soul to slaughter someone with bare hands, in cold blood. A bullet through the head at least provides the perpetrator with an “empathy barrier” behind which he may hide his consciousness. Butchers wielding meat cleavers are a species in their own right. They have no ears to hear the squeals of the slaughtered and no eyes to see the life-blood that stains their hands.
It is incitement that enables human beings to hack others to death without so much blinking an eye. The blood of the murdered and future blood of innocent victims cry out from the ground to pressure the Palestinian Authority to put a stop to it. For years, and to no effect, Israel has demanded that the PA cease its institutional hatred, from which thousands graduate in the cult of death.
Incitement is a term so flatly used and thrown around that observers, like the perpetrators, are desensitized to its poison. Incitement has also lost its critical meaning to the likes of the U.K. Jewish group Yachad and its American counterpart, J Street, groups that claim to be “pro-Israel and pro-peace,” yet unreasonably hold Israel entirely accountable for the violence and unfathomably refuse to lobby their own governments to demand the cessation of provocative hatred in the PA.
I too am “pro-Israel and pro-peace.” But actually achieving peace is not the abracadabra process that they would have us believe. Incitement needs to be dissected in order to break down hatred and work for peace. Incitement needs to be spelled out as an “idiots’ guide to murder.” Here is my “ABC to the art of slaughter.”
ABBAS — Leader of the Palestinian Authority. The person entirely culpable for the violence, the breakdown of the peace talks and the death of innocent people living in the State of Israel and the areas assigned to the PA.
BULLYING — The use of strength or power to harm or intimidate those who are weaker. During the peace talks, the director-general of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group criticized his own government, declaring, “There is no freedom of expression in our areas.” A Palestinian blogger was arrested by the PA for starting a Facebook campaign called “The People Want an End to Corruption.” A West Bank university lecturer was arrested for criticizing Mahmoud Abbas on Facebook. The former information minister was shot after calling for reforms in the PA. This bullying and intimidation is intended to deepen the frustration and hatred in Palestinian consciousness and provoke hostility toward the Jewish people.
CHRONICLE — A factual written account of important or historical events in the order of their occurrence. During the peace talks the PA religious affairs minister declared, “History proves the Arab, Islamic and Palestinian rights to this land and disproves the Israeli claim that they have historical and religious rights to this land.” The PA director of the Archaeological Institute claimed, “The archaeological treasures in Jerusalem refute Israeli claims that it’s a Jewish city.” The chief religious justice said, “Since 1967, Israel has been excavating unsuccessfully in search of their fictitious history.” These perjurious chronicles are incitement intended to deepen the hatred in Palestinian consciousness and provoke hostility toward the Jewish people.
DOUBLESPEAK — Deliberately euphemistic, ambiguous, or obscure language. During the peace talks, Abbas addressed the international community in a language of tolerance and peace. He declared, “I am committed to peace, but not forever. I don’t mean that I will turn to violence — never. In my life I will never do it.” Yet at the same time his TV station broadcast a song that demanded violence and jihad against Jews and that grenades be thrown in the Israeli cities of Lod and Ramle. This ambiguous incitement is intended to deepen the hatred in Palestinian consciousness and provoke hostility toward the Jewish people.
EDUCATION — The process of receiving or giving systematic instruction. Illiteracy runs high in the areas of the PA. Unlike education systems in Israel, children are deprived the study of history, foreign literature or any of the classics. Instead, they are fed an Islamist education void of any critique of the Quran and raised on a revisionist, subjective history bereft of the trials and sufferings of any other people group but their own. This systematic incitement is intended to deepen the hatred in Palestinian consciousness and provoke hostility toward the Jewish people.
FREEDOM FIGHTERS — People who take part in a violent struggle to achieve a political goal. Once-upon-a-world-ago, people who murdered innocent civilians for political gain were called “terrorists.” The dumbing down of this terminology is rhetorical justification of heinous crimes and is incitement intended to deepen the hatred in Palestinian consciousness and hostility toward the Jewish people.
GRANTS — Sums of money given by an organization for a particular purpose. During the peace talks and ever since, money was paid by the PA to the families of cold-blooded murderers sitting in Israeli jails. This financial incitement is intended to deepen the hatred in Palestinian consciousness and provoke hostility toward the Jewish people.
HATE SPEECH — Speech that attacks a person or group on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. During the peace talks and ever since, the PA religious affairs minister maintained that the conflict with Israel is religious and not territorial. In a sermon, he proclaimed, “Allah has preordained for us ‘ribat’ (religious war). … This is not merely a struggle over a piece of land here or there, not at all.” This religious incitement is intended to deepen the hatred in Palestinian consciousness and provoke hostility toward the Jewish people.
INDOCTRINATION — A process in which a person or group is taught to accept a set of beliefs uncritically. From the age of kindergarten, children are subjected to indoctrination through television, summer camps and the education curriculum. They are primed to hate and are taught that the most noble cause is to be a martyr. Footage of innocent children strapped to suicide belts are frequent in the PA media. This child abuse is incitement that is intended to deepen the hatred in Palestinian consciousness and provoke hostility toward the Jewish people.
JUDENFREI — A Nazi term used during the Holocaust denoting an area to be “free of Jews.” The PA has adopted the same goal, intending for a future Palestinian state to be “Judenfrei.” In the PA, selling land to Jews is a crime punishable by death. This fascist incitement is intended to deepen the hatred in Palestinian consciousness and provoke hostility toward the Jewish people.
KILLING — The premature ending of a person’s life. In contrast, “murder” is the unlawful, premeditated act of taking the life of another human being without justification or excuse. People who are intentionally hacked to death with meat cleavers are “murdered.” Terrorists who are shot at to prevent them taking another innocent life are “killed.” Western media and foreign politicians perversely deemed both the fate of the terrorists and the Har Nof rabbis as “killed,” putting a sinister moral equivalence on their deaths. This semantic incitement is intended to deepen the hatred in Palestinian consciousness and provoke hostility toward the Jewish people.
LIES — Untruths. During the peace talks and ever since, lies have been an integral part of the narrative of the PA. Jews killed Arafat, spread AIDS, set fire to Al-Aqsa mosque, steal the body parts of Palestinians, have a plan to rule the Middle East, control the banks, dominate the media, want to rule the world, are behind the Arab world crisis, are committing genocide against the Palestinians and are conducting a holocaust in Gaza. This libelous incitement is intended to deepen the hatred in Palestinian consciousness and provoke hostility toward the Jewish people.
MALEFACTOR — Offender, criminal, villain, lawbreaker, evildoer. During the peace talks, a Bethlehem summer camp was named after Dalal Mughrabi, who murdered 38 Israeli civilians. A song was sung in her honor under the auspices of Abbas. This immoral incitement is intended to deepen the hatred in Palestinian consciousness and provoke hostility toward the Jewish people.
NEMESIS — Adversary, foe, opponent, enemy. Within PA-controlled areas, Christians have had their churches bombed multiple times by Islamists. Riots against Christians have occurred in the Ramallah area and in Gaza the director of the Palestinian Bible Society was brutally murdered. This Islamist incitement is intended to deepen the hatred in Palestinian Muslim consciousness and provoke hostility toward those of a different faith.
OBITUARY — A notice of a death, typically including a brief biography of the deceased person. During the peace talks Abbas mourned the death of one of the planners of the Munich Olympics massacre. In a eulogy, he called him “a wonderful brother” and “companion.” This is demagogic incitement intended to deepen the hatred in Palestinian consciousness and provoke hostility toward the Jewish people.
POGROM — An organized massacre of a group of Jews. During the peace talks and ever since, the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation sent ideological messages via television encouraging people to seek death, kill Jews and redeem Palestine through the blood of the martyrs. This ethnic incitement is intended to deepen the hatred in Palestinian consciousness and provoke hostility toward the Jewish people.
QURAN — The Islamic sacred book. During the peace talks, the PA religious affairs minister declared, “This conflict is explicit in the Quran and our obligation with regard to it is clarified by the Quran.” This theocratic incitement is intended to deepen the hatred in Palestinian consciousness and provoke hostility toward the Jewish people.
REFUSAL — Nonacceptance, dissent, demurral, negation, turndown. During the peace talks and ever since, the PA refused to unequivocally recognize Israel’s right to exist. The PA denotes its most important cities (aside from Jerusalem) as Haifa, Jaffa, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Tiberias, Eilat and Acre. These are Israeli cities that lie within the 1949 armistice lines. Israel is erased from the school sign of the PA Education Ministry. Fatah’s youth movement also continues to use a logo that erases Israel. The websites of the Agriculture, Youth and Sport, and Planning ministries also have maps of a Palestine without the State of Israel. This antagonistic incitement is intended to deepen the hatred in Palestinian consciousness and provoke hostility toward the Jewish people.
STEREOTYPE — A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person. During the peace talks and ever since, Palestinian newspapers and websites depicted Jews as greedy, ugly, rats and pigs. Many of the motifs are taken directly from Nazi propaganda and the fabricated anti-Semitic document “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” This racial incitement is intended to deepen the hatred in Palestinian consciousness and provoke hostility toward the Jewish people.
TERRORIST — A person who murder innocents in the pursuit of political aims. During the peace talks, the PA prisoner affairs minister honored a terrorist because her four sons are serving 18 life sentences for killing Jews. He also participated in a Bethlehem ceremony honoring 73 terrorists serving life sentences in Israeli jails by unveiling a Tree of Freedom of Palestine. This murderous incitement is intended to deepen the hatred in Palestinian consciousness and provoke hostility toward the Jewish people.
UNRWA — United Nations Relief and Works Agency. Rather than provide “relief,” this organization cooperates with the Palestinian leadership and in the name of human rights exploits and perpetuates their refugee status, exacerbates incitement and facilities the deliberate murder of innocent Israelis and inadvertently causes the deaths of innocent Gazans. This political incitement is intended to deepen the hatred in Palestinian consciousness and provoke hostility toward the Jewish people.
VIOLATION — The breaking or failing to comply with a rule or formal agreement. According to human rights groups, the PA is one of the biggest violators of human rights on record. A member of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights and a British circuit judge reported that the violation of human rights includes honor killings, torture, incarceration without trial, cross-amputations and executions. This injurious incitement is intended to deepen the frustrations and hatred in Palestinian consciousness and provoke hostility toward the Jewish people.
WESTERN MEDIA — Agencies of communication via television, radio, newspapers, and the Internet originating from civilized, democratic societies. All media have considerable influence and moral responsibility. Rather than condemn incitement and violence, the Western media justify it and seek to blame exclusively the State of Israel. This manipulative incitement is intended to deepen the hatred in Palestinian consciousness and provoke hostility toward the Jewish people.
XENOPHOBIA — Intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other people groups. During the peace talks, a theme that was used by the PA was the symbol of a person disposing of garbage in a trash can. The remake of this image included a Palestinian flag superimposed over the figure, who was throwing a Star of David into the garbage. The added text read, “Keep your flag clean.” The poster was broadcast on PA TV by the Palestinian Red Crescent organization. This xenophobic incitement is intended to deepen the hatred in Palestinian consciousness and provoke hostility toward the Jewish people.
YAHUD — Arabic for “Jew.” Yahud is a term that the PA prefers over “Israeli.” With increasing frequency, it is preceded by the word “slaughter,” and used by terrorists before they blow up, hack at or run over Israeli citizens regardless of whether they are Jewish, Muslim, Christian or Druze. This nationalistic incitement is intended to deepen the hatred in Palestinian consciousness and provoke hostility toward the Jewish people.
ZIONISM — A movement for the re-establishment, development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now the State of Israel. Zionism was also an ideology that was embraced by Christian Europe in the 19th century. Western democracies saw themselves as facilitating self-determination for the Jewish people in their homeland. Today these same countries deem Zionism as racism and accuse Israel of colonialism. This hypocritical incitement is intended to deepen the hatred in Palestinian consciousness and provoke hostility toward the Jewish people.
Any individual or group truly “pro-Israel and pro-peace” will possess the integrity to call the PA’s incitement what it is: intimidating, perjurious, ambiguous, systematic, rhetorical, financial, religious, abusive, fascist, semantic, libelous, immoral, Islamist, demagogic, ethnic, theocratic, antagonistic, racial, murderous, political, injurious, manipulative, xenophobic, nationalistic and hypocritical, and intended to deepen the hatred in Palestinian consciousness and provoke hostility toward the Jewish people.
And if there is such a demand from Yachad or J Street, then they need to shout more loudly, for the blood of the innocents crying out from the ground is drowning out their calls.