Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the prevalence of anti-Semitsm in the West Bank, as noted in the
Anti-Defamation League's global survey of the phenomenon released last week, is the result of the Palestinian leadership's incitement.
Ranking anti-Semitic sentiments by region, the ADL determined that the most anti-Semitic regions were found to be the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Palestinian anti-Semitism is “pervasive throughout society,” the ADL found, with 93% of respondents affirming anti-Jewish stereotypes.
Speaking at the beginning of the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said that the statistics were "the result of non-stop anti-Semitic incitement by the Palestinian Authority, which distorts the image of Israel and the Jewish people."
Netanyahu hinted that the distortion of Jews was similar to that employed by the Nazis, saying that such incitement had been seen "in other places in our past."
The prime minister expressed pessimism about the prospects for peace with the Palestinians, in light of last week's rallies marking
Nakba Day in the West Bank and Gaza. The "Nakba," or "catastrophe" in Arabic, is the day in which Palestinians mourn the founding of the state of Israel in 1948.
"Those who see the establishment of the state of Israel as a disaster, do not want peace," Netanyahu stated.
