As a condition for receiving continued U.S. aid, the Palestinian Authority would have to pass White House inspection that it “no longer engages” in incitement against the United States or Israel, according to a bill authored by the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, JTA reported Thursday.
The bill comes in the wake of strenuous efforts by the Netanyahu government to show that the Palestinian Authority isn’t interested peace, the purported proof being the anti-Israeli “incitement” in their media, textbooks and public statements. Palestinians maintain the charge is false, and point to statements by Israeli leaders as being no less antagonistic. The Israeli campaign is timed to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts to pressure both sides into a peace agreement, which both sides are resisting.
The bill, submitted Wednesday by California Republican Rep. Ed Royce, would require President Barack Obama to certify every six months that the PA “no longer engages in a pattern of incitement against the United States or Israel; and is engaged in peace preparation activities aimed at promoting peace with the Jewish State of Israel.”
Royce said: “As Secretary of State John Kerry engages in negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, Congress will make it clear to the Palestinian Authority that continuing anti-Israel incitement to violence through PA-controlled media outlets must cease.”
However, a three-year, State Department-funded study of both Palestinian and Israeli textbooks concluded a year ago that “dehumanizing and demonizing characterizations of the other … are rare in both Israeli and Palestinian books. Second, both Israeli and Palestinian books present unilateral national narratives that present the other as enemy …”
The PA receives $400 million annually from the United States.
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