The State Department recently released the “Country Reports on Terrorism 2016,” its annual assessment of global terrorism for the year, in which the report contains nearly identical language in defense of the Palestinian Authority (PA) for the 10th consecutive year. Instead of providing careful assessments of the PA's recent incitement to violence, state officials have “recycled” parts of its old reports that “whitewash” and overlook the PA’s agenda for violence.

The 2016 report states: “The PA has taken significant steps during President [Mahmoud] Abbas's tenure (2005 to date) to ensure that official institutions in the West Bank under its control do not create or disseminate content that incites violence.” However, Jewish News Service found that the same sentence also appeared in the department's reports for 2015, 2014 and 2013. Similar repetition can also be found in the section of the reports regarding violence incitement in the mosques. The 2014 report stated, “The PA maintains control over the content of Friday sermons delivered in over 1800 West Bank mosques to ensure that they do not endorse incitement to violence.” The identical sentence regarding the mosque sermons also was used in the reports for 2013, 2012 and 2011 and almost identical language was included in the 2010 and 2009 reports. The 2007 and 2008 reports claimed then-PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad “has condemned every attack against Israelis” since he took office. Very similar language appeared in 2009 and 2010.

Previously, the reports have typically sidestepped the issues of PA incitement and terror condemnations and claimed the PA was taking strong action against terrorism. The reports from 1996-1999 all used this sentence: “The PA, which is responsible for security in Gaza and most major West Bank cities, continued to act against Palestinian perpetrators of violence against Israel.” The State Department report then stated that the PA efforts led to a decrease in terror attacks in Israel but the report did not cite statistics. However, in reality, there has been a significant increase in both numbers of attacks and in casualties. In 2015, 108 terror attacks resulted in 83 killed and 251 wounded. In 2016, 122 attacks resulted in 90 dead and 381 wounded.

The State Department's report is inaccurate about the PA not inciting violence since 2005. The Palestinian Media Watch has documented examples of incitement to violence since 2005. The following three videos are just a few examples. One shows the violent image of a dagger being thrust into the Star of David, which has appeared hundreds of times in a video clip for children on PA TV from 2001 – 2008. Another video shows a song promoting violence and death broadcast live on PA TV on June 4, 2010, and was rebroadcast June 24, July 9, July 13, July 16, July 20, Sept. 21, and Dec. 31, 2010. It was rebroadcast in 2011 on Oct. 3, 4, and 7. The third video gives many examples of how the PA promotes violence to adults and children. 

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