Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan spoke this morning at the Herzliya conference, where he devoted a significant amount of time to the heroism of policemen standing at the forefront against terror.
“Along with our ‘traditional’ heroes - the pilots who acted deep in enemy territory, the tank commanders who fought at the forefront against the enemy, our foot soldiers - today, when the home front stands stands at the fore in the face of terror, the policeman is the first to give a response to terror threats: Today, the new terror turns policemen and policewomen, who maintain security and order in the city centers of Israel, like Hadas Malka, Hadar Cohen, and their associates, into heroes of the battle,” Erdan said.
“Hadas and Hadar both fell a the Damascus Gate, which has come to be a Palestinian terror symbol. They know that our sovereignty begins in Jerusalem, and terrorists want to attack first and foremost at the first point of friction with security forces on the path leading to the Temple Mount and Old City - 32 attacks in the last two-and-a-half years in the area of the Damascus Gate.”
“I can say that we are going to enact an unprecedented change in the entire security system at Damascus Gate; cameras, guardposts, intelligence, a change in the terrain - we will do everything to significantly minimize attacks at that point. Damascus Gate is going to see a revolution,” he said.
Addressing Palestinian Arab incitement to terror, Erdan said, “I call on the US administration - it was an important step by President Trump to bring up the issue of PA incitement, but we cannot fall for the tricks which Abbas is starting to play regarding the issue.”
“He will assert that the payments to the families of terrorists are a type of welfare payment to families whose source of income has been damaged. And this is a boldfaced lie. Why do Palestinian families in which a family member died from a disease or a car accident not receive the same payments?”
“Abbas is already trying to hide the payments through partial reporting of the PA budget, and through the establishment of fictitious bodies through which he funnels the funds,” he added.
“We must say clearly as we can: ‘Palestinian incitement, the culture of violence and hate which Abbas and Yasser Arafat before him have cultivated for years, the Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a sovereign country of the Jewish people in their borders - these are the main obstacles to peace, and their removal will create, more than anything else, the conditions for negotiations. Abbas has not only not condemned the murder of Policewoman Hadas Malka, may her memory be a blessing, but his political movement, Fatah, praised the three accursed terrorists.”
“Special envoy Jason Greenblatt and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are now on a visit in Israel and the PA. I call on them to say unequivocally, ‘As long as Abbas funds incitement, the US won’t fund Abbas.’”
“I call on the American administration not to ignore this. Not one cent of American taxpayers' money should be going to fund Palestinian incitement to terror.”