Ariel mayor: Delegitimization of settlements caused attack

Ron Nachman says left-wing journalists, Palestinians incited Itamar terrorists ; Settlers reportedly attack houses in nearby villages.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Itamar 311 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Itamar 311
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Ariel Mayor Ron Nachman on Saturday blamed Palestinian and left-wing delegitimization of West Bank settlements for the Friday night Itamar terror attack in which five Israelis were killed. Nachman's comments came in an interview with Israel Radio.
Nachman stated that Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad calling for a boycott of goods manufactured in the settlements as well as Israeli newspapers "separating settlers from Israelis living on the other side of the Green Line" were responsible for inciting the terrorists to carry out the attack in Itamar.
RELATED:Fayyad 'firmly condemns' Itamar terror attack
National Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau on Saturday said that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was responsible for Friday's terror attack in Itamar because he allowed incitement to violence against Israel in the PA's educational system.
"Behind the murderer of the family in Itamar stands Abu Mazen [Abbas], the "peace partner," who founded the official educational system in the Palestinian Authority, which teaches hatred of Jews and presents child killers as role models," Landau said in a statement.
Landau called on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to stop presenting Abbas as a peace partner and to demand from the PA and the US that peaceful education in the Palestinian Authority be a precondition to any peace process.
Netanyahu also demanded that the Palestinian Authority "halt the incitement in the mosques and via the Palestinian Authority-controlled media."
A statement from Netanyahu added that "a society that permits such wild incitement is one that eventually brings about the murder of children."
Palestinian sources reported on Saturday that a number of West Bank settlers attacked houses in the villages of Burin and Hawara, near Itamar.
According to the report, Palestinian eye witnesses said that between 30 and 40 settlers entered the houses in the Palestinian villages and then proceeded to hurl stones and glass bottles at them.