New York, NY, March 9, 2016 … Following a day of violent attacks in Jaffa, Jerusalem and Petach Tikvah which left an American tourist dead and 13 Israelis wounded, including a pregnant woman, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) called on Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority leadership to step up and condemn this wanton violence.
Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO, issued the following statement:
It is unacceptable that for over five months, the people of Israel have had to go about their everyday lives with the fear of being stabbed, shot and rammed with cars. Israelis deserve to be able to walk to school and commute to work, shop, eat, and visit holy sites without the fear of being attacked. There are legitimate frustrations on all sides about the state of the peace process, but there is no justification for random, senseless violence targeting innocent civilians.
Yesterday’s attacks, which killed visiting American Taylor Force, are only the most recent of a long list of violence targeting Israelis to which the Palestinian Authority’s official response has been silence. Palestinian news outlets referred to the Jaffa attacker as a ‘martyr’ and the victims as ‘settlers.’ We join with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden in calling this ‘failure to condemn’ unacceptable and that ‘this cannot be viewed by civilized leaders as an appropriate way in which to behave.’
At a time when the level of trust between Israelis and Palestinians - both between the leadership and the societies - is at a nadir, these attacks and Palestinian support for them – both tacit and declarative – only exacerbates this mistrust and suspicion. We hope that the incitement will end and that Israelis and Palestinians can work to rebuild trust and resume constructive dialog.
We extend our sincerest condolences to the Force family and pray for the recovery of the wounded.
Force, an MBA student at Vanderbilt University, a veteran who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan and a West Point graduate, was in Israel with a campus group to study global entrepreneurship.