Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Sunday slammed remarks by
the spiritual leader of Israel’s leading ultra-Orthodox party, who said
the Palestinians should “perish”, saying that it was paramount to
incitement to genocide. Erekat called on the Israeli government to denounce the
remarks by Israel’s former chief rabbi Ovadia Yosef, and to take action
against racist remarks by other elected officials. He also criticized
Israel for allowing the incident to pass without condemnation.Yosef
had said during his weekly Shabbat sermon that the Palestinians, namely
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, should perish from the world.
Yosef, a founder of the Shas Party, also described Palestinians as evil,
bitter enemies of Israel.
“All these evil people should perish from
this world … God should strike them with a plague, them and these
Palestinians,” Yosef had said.
The 89-year-old is a respected religious
scholar but is also known for vitriolic comments about Arabs, secular
Jews, liberals, women and gays, among others.
“Is this how the Israeli government prepares
its public for a peace agreement?” Erekat said, days before Israeli and
Palestinian leaders were scheduled to meet in Washington fo… >>>
