Official Palestinian Authority (PA) publications are repeatedly blaming Israel for the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris earlier this month, Palestinian Media Watch reports Sunday.
The daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida has featured multiple attacks on Israel for the shooting rampage, which sent shockwaves through the West after Al-Qaeda terrorists Said and Cherif Kouachi shot and killed 12 members of the satirical news magazine for publishing cartoons against Muslim prophet Mohammed. Later, Islamist gunman Amedy Coulibali held French Jews hostage in the Hypercasher kosher grocery store in the capital, killing 4 people.
The following are selected excerpts of the conspiracy theories against Israel for the attacks, as translated by PMW.
[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, together with [other] Israeli leaders, is now walking in the footsteps of the first leaders of the Zionist project, who invented, created and funded the terror against the Jews in Europe, particularly in Germany, and in the Arab world. These leaders carried out [terror] operations against Jewish citizens who had been living securely in Arab and European countries, and contributed to the increase in Nazi aggression against Jews in Germany and Europe. [. . .]Over the next few days, the death of the officer in charge of investigating the attacks of the terrorists, who perpetrated crimes against humanity, against the French journalists and citizens, may well be revealed to have been murder, rather than suicide - for he had [discovered] the first threads of the plot leading back to Netanyahu's Mossad (Israeli Secret Intelligence Service) - [the same Netanyahu] who wishes to realize the myth of the "Jewishness of Israel" even at the expense of new victims among the citizens of European countries.Similarly, Netanyahu and [Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor] Liberman had been yearning to take revenge on the European governments and parliaments for their conduct - in particular on the French policy - because of their positions on the Palestinian cause and their support for the decision to end the Israeli occupation and establish an independent Palestinian state on the June 4, 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital [. . .] the scope of this article does not permit the [enumeration of the] contradictions, reported in the media regarding the Paris terror operation - contradictions which raise legitimate questions as to who is behind these crimes, if not the Israeli Intelligence, given that 'Netanyahu's Jewish State' was the only one to benefit from them." - Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 15
Op-ed columnists at the daily, likewise, accused Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the Mossad of planning the attacks solely to encourage French Jews to immigrate to Israel.
In similar moves, journalist Akram Atallah of the official PA television program Panorama of the Hour also accused Israel of planning terror attacks - this time, for decades:
In the past, the Israeli Mossad (i.e., the Israeli Secret Intelligence Service) carried out operations (i.e., terror attacks): It bombed synagogues in order to force the Jews to emigrate. [. . .] The operation (i.e., the terror attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo) served Israel's demographic [interests], for the Israeli media and government bodies predicted yesterday that 10,000 French Jews would immigrate to Israel... Now, when we are talking about the immigration of 10,000 French Jews next year, while last year, [only] 3,000 French Jews immigrated to Israel, in my opinion... when the number rises to 10,000, this is a very large number and this is what Israel wants. The number is not [meant to include] French Jews only...At present, the [Jews'] assimilation into the [European] societies is frightening as well. The message was not just meant for the Jews of France. It was [meant] for all Jews... Even today, the number of Jews in Israel is less than 50% - we are talking about 45-47% of the [world's] Jews. Israel is in trouble.This operation (i.e., the synagogue terror attack in Israel in November 2014 in which 5 people were killed) served the propagandists of immigration and the leaders of the [Zionist] project, in order to strengthen the project. - Atallah, program broadcasted Jan 12.
Palestinian Arabs overwhelmingly believe the propaganda, PMW notes, and a Ma'an poll published last week states that 84.4% of respondents believed Israel is behind the "suspicious" attacks. Just 8.7% of respondents attributed the rampages to Islamism running rampant in Europe.