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PA State-Sponsored Hate Speech Must Stop, Human Rights Expert Says

(Times of Israel) Elhanan Miller - Former Canadian justice minister and attorney general Irwin Cotler told The Times of Israel that "pervasive" Palestinian hate speech is particularly severe because it is state-sanctioned, emanating from official media, television and religious discourse in mosques. "In Israel there's hate speech as well," he acknowledged, "but it doesn't emanate from the state, nor sanctioned by it. There are laws against incitement." In his meetings with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, Cotler said, "I told Abbas: 'You should do away with hate speech because it is not only a threat to Israeli-Palestinian peace but it's a threat to your own society. You want to bring up children not in a culture of hate but in a culture of respect for the other, for the inherent dignity of all people.'" "If it's a non-democracy where there's no opportunity for democratic free speech, then the state has a particular responsibility to ensure that hate speech does not fester. What's happening in the Palestinian Authority is exactly the opposite; that hate speech is not only being permitted, it's being encouraged."
2014-01-16 00:00:00
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