Palestinian social media has been brimming with calls to stab Jews. Clothing store mannequins in Gaza now clench large knives. Even women are encouraged to sport dagger earrings.
But that loud and clear incitement to violence didn’t stop Palestinians from coming up with a new conspiracy theory: Israel is planting knives next to the bodies of terrorists to frame them.
A cartoon circulating on Palestinian social media depicted an Israeli soldier with a basket of knives placing the weapons next to the bodies of dead Palestinians. The caption said: "Shoot…add a knife…take a photo."
The cartoon was tweeted Monday by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement, reported Palestinian Media Watch, an Israeli organization that monitors incitement in the Palestinian media.
Jerusalem Post Arab affairs correspondent Khaled Abu-Toameh has observed multiple claims of knife-planting reported by the independent Palestinian Ma'an news agency.
Interesting that Ma'an news agency (Arabic) almost always finds 'witnesses' who saw soldiers 'plant' a knife near Palestinians shot by IDF.
— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) October 28, 2015Al-Jazeera advanced the same claim.
Israel Radio’s Arab affairs correspondent Gal Berger who follows the Palestinian media closely noted that the knife-planting claim is a “recurring theme in almost each of the stabbing attacks” appearing both in social media and traditional media outlets.
The assertion that Israel is planting knives on the bodies of assailants killed while they were trying to stab Israelis is, logically speaking, inconsistent with the repeated push for more attacks and the glorification of the knife.
Israeli rescue personal evacuate a woman from a stabbing attack site in Rishon Lezion, Israel, Monday, Nov. 2. Israel’s emergency rescue service said two people were seriously injured and one lightly in the attack in Rishon Lezion near Tel Aviv. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Other examples of glorification of terrorism among Palestinians include naming a newborn baby in Gaza “knife of Jerusalem” while some have taken to calling the wave of daily stabbing attacks against Israelis the “knife Intifada,” or “uprising.”
An 80-year-old woman and 71-year-old man were among the victims wounded in Palestinian stabbing attacks Monday in central Israel.
