“I salute Odai and Ghassan for this heroic act. Every Palestinian should strike … Al Aqsa is in danger. The settlers brutally hanged Yousef. We raise our heads high.” These were the words spoken by Huda Abu Jamal, the cousin of the two Palestinians, who, wielding guns and meat cleavers, murdered four rabbis and a Druze policeman and left nine others injured in a synagogue on last Tuesday in the West Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Nof.

This attack came after weeks of tension in the Israeli capital, which included the stabbing of four other Israelis and two instances of cars being driven into crowds, resulting in the deaths of three people, including a three-month-old baby girl. 

A Palestinian teenager was also killed by Israeli police after he approached their squad vehicle with a knife. Yousef Ramouni, the Palestinian bus driver referenced by the assailants’ cousin, was also found hung in his bus last Sunday. While Abu Jamal and many others have used Ramouni’s death as a call to arms for Palestinians, an official autopsy report, conducted by an Arab coroner, found that the incident was a suicide and no foul play was involved.

Most news sources have cited friction over the Temple Mount—the religious site holy to both Muslims and Jews—as the cause of the recent turbulence. Unfortunately, the media and world leaders mostly ignore a major precipitant in the mayhem that has occurred. The incitement against Israel and the Jewish people by the Palestinian government stokes the fire of disorder and is not conducive to peace. The Palestinian Authority consistently incites violence against Israel; on the Friday before last Tuesday’s attacks, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas encouraged violence at the Temple Mount, calling Jewish visitors “settlers” and stating that they needed to be prevented from entering the site by using “all means” necessary. 

Other Fatah officials made repeated statements in recent weeks praising deadly terror attacks on Israelis; in particular, the head of the Media Department for Fatah in Lebanon Muhammad al-Biqa’i praised the terrorists last Tuesday as martyrs, adding that “They came out with their weapons, with the true belief that Jerusalem needs blood to purify itself of Jews.”

Hamas, the governing party in the Gaza strip, has stated its full support for the terrorists and has called “for more revenge attacks.” Further, Palestinian Authority TV claimed that the bus driver was lynched by settlers even after there was a clear consensus that it was a suicide. These statements encourage deadly actions and may have motivated the attack that occurred last week.

Under the terms of the 1993 Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority is obligated to refrain from incitement against Israel and to take measures to prevent others from engaging in it. The PA has not followed the terms of the agreement and, in fact, continuously violates them. Further, Hamas’ charter contains clauses devoted to Israel’s destruction, thereby inherently inciting violence against the Jewish state.

The New York Times’ Editorial Board recognized the threat posed by the Palestinian Authority incitement and denounced it in a statement published on Tuesday. 

In the statement, the board remarked that Abbas had to be pushed by Secretary of State John Kerry into speaking out after the attacks, that it was the first time in recent weeks Abbas had condemned any act of violence against Israelis and that Abbas “has a duty to make the moral case that such brutality and inhumanity can only bring shame upon the Palestinian people. “Kerry also denounced the Palestinian Authority’s incitement, blaming the attack on Palestinian calls for “days of rage” and demanding Palestinians “at every single level of leadership to condemn this in the most powerful terms.”

The increasing awareness of Palestinian incitement as an obstacle to peace is a welcome step forward, but it is not enough. President Barack Obama himself should condemn Abbas’ incitement and have him prove that he is indeed the man of peace world leaders make him out to be. Further, instead of simply condemning this hateful speech, the United States and the European Union countries, who combined donate the bulk of the billions of dollars the Palestinian Authority receives in international aid, need to take wholehearted actions to prevent the indoctrination of hatred in Palestinian society.

Such measures should include making aid to the Palestinian Authority contingent on its efforts to prevent incitement and promote rhetoric that supports coexistence. For example, Palestinian officials who incite against Israel must be fired, children’s television programs that promote jihad must be removed from Palestinian Authority TV and textbooks that demonize Israel and Judaism, which Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has said “profoundly poison the minds of these [Palestinian] children,” must be removed from schools. Only after these changes are made should aid begin flowing in. Abbas and others are heavily reliant on international financial support; as such, aid should only be granted upon being earned.

Much of the world is intent on giving the PA a state of its own, yet handing it a state on a silver platter while ignoring the hateful actions of the government would be a grave mistake. A two state solution will only work if both governments will be able to cooperate with one another and reject promotion of hate of the other side.

In the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, Palestinians celebrated in the street the deaths of the Jews in Jerusalem, distributing sweets and dancing after the media announced the horrific events of last Tuesday morning. If the international community seeks the end of such displays and the absence of statements such as the one made by Huda Abu Jamal, it will need to take decisive action against Palestinian incitement. Only when the Palestinian leadership decides to lead its people in denouncing hatred can a lasting peace truly be established.

—Jonas Singer ’17 is vice president of the Brandeis Israel Public Affairs Committee. Dor Cohen ’16 is president of the Brandeis International Journal and vice president of Brandeis Republicans.