If you needed any more clues as to why a final Israeli-Palestinian settlement remains so elusive, consider the case of four Arabs who accepted an invitation for the holiday of Sukkot in the nearby Israeli settlement of Efrat on Thursday: The Palestinian Authority arrested them.
The invite from Oded Revivi, the Israeli mayor, was intended to promote peace — and the four men (Riyad Abu Hamad, Yakoub Mousa Abu Hamad, Farouk Mousa Abu Hamad and Mohammad Ahmed Abu Hamad) surely took it in that spirit. Can’t hurt to get to know the neighbors, can it?
Except that the PA insists on boycotting the settlements — it won’t accept any Israeli presence outside the 1967 borders, no matter that it’s been half a century.
On Sunday, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu took to Facebook to slam the arrests as “further proof of the Palestinian refusal to make peace” and rally global demands to free the unfortunate peacemakers.
That apparently embarrassed Palestinian officials into releasing the four — while claiming they’d really only been held for questioning and for their own protection in the wake of threats made on social media.
Sadly, it’s all par for the course for the PA — whose textbooks teach hatred of all Jews, whose laws reward Israeli-killing terrorists and whose leaders have spent decades silencing (often fatally) any Palestinian who dares work with Israel’s government.
“Initiatives that seek to foster cooperation and peace between people should be encouraged, not silenced,” said Revivi. “It’s time the Palestinian Authority asks itself whether it would prefer to fan the flames of conflict instead of working to bring people together.”
Long, long past time, actually.