Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas has accused Jews living in Judea and Samaria of training wild boars to uproot Arabs' trees. The fantastic claim is included in a quote from Abbas that appears in an official presentation on PA incitement presented Sunday to the Israeli cabinet.
Abbas made the claim in a speech in Ramallah on the eve of his appearance at the United Nations in September, in which he asked for recognition of PA statehood. The speech went virtually unnoticed in the media, except for some vigilant blogs.
"The occupation and its actions, this is the nightmare that weighs down upon us," Abbas said. "…Attacks by settlers that find their expression in uprooting trees, burning mosques and even training dogs to attack us and sending wild boars to spread corruption on the face of the earth."
Abbas continued: "The settlers deal with us in three ways: when they run across someone they attack him; they have trained the dogs well for this, and the boars, too, for uprooting trees."
Just one week after Abbas gave his speech, a terror gang murdered Asher and Yonatan Palmer of Kiryat Arba.
The Minister for Strategic Affairs, Moshe Yaalon, and Ministry Director Yossi Kupferwasser, presented the quotes as part of a report on the "Incitement Index," which shows an upsurge in PA incitement against Israel in recent months.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called the Index "an important eye-opener and reminder regarding where we live."
"We have seen horrific things here," he said, "that define the Jews as poisoners of wells, among other things, and prepare the hearts for harsh and cruel deeds."
The Elder of Zion blog has found that the wild boar libel originated with reports that appeared on PA news sites. A 2010 report on the Palestine Press Agency claimed:
"Pigs from settlers from the settlement of 'Ariel' continued their attacks on the rights of farms and houses in Salfit and surrounding villages. Witnesses said that a swine herd consisting of twenty pigs attacked the farming communities, breaking down peach and apricot trees... Witnesses said the pigs made scary sounds and also attacked a field of wheat belonging to farmers Imran Ahmed Khalil Masri and Abu Dar.... The farmers expressed their indignation at the repeated attacks of pigs and have shown that attempts to eliminate them and get rid of them have failed dismally."
Elder of Zion noted wryly that "the evil Jews did not only train the pigs to distinguish between Arab and Jewish farmlands, but they also train them to make scary noises!"
Past Muslim "Zionist animal" theories have included stories about Mossad trained bee-eaters, vultures and sharks, as well as poison-resistant rats purportedly trained to drive Arab residents of Jerusalem out of their homes.