Netanyahu slams silence over PA arrest of Palestinians who visited Sukkah to Talk Peace

After the Palestinian Authority arrested four men who visited the town of Efrat in Judea over the Jewish Sukkot holiday, self-proclaimed human rights groups were silent, prompting Prime Minister Netanyahu and numerous others to call them out on their hypocrisy.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed human rights organizations for their silence over the arrest of four Palestinians by the Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces after they visited the Sukkah of Oded Revivi, Chief Foreign Envoy of the YESHA Council and Mayor of Efrat, last Thursday.

“They came to honor the festival of Sukkot and their Jewish neighbors. They were welcomed as guests in keeping with the best of the Jewish tradition,” Netanyahu wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday.

“These visitors did no harm to anyone. But when they returned from the visit, they were arrested by the Palestinian Authority,” he continued.

According to PA law, meeting with “settlers” consists of a crime of collaborating with the enemy.

“Where is the outrage of human rights organizations? There is none. To their great shame, they are silent,” Netanyahu charged.

Netanyahu added that the silence “is neither new nor surprising,” as these organizations “are silent when the Palestinian leadership pays salaries to the families of terrorists, glorifies murderers and calls streets and city-centers after them.”

Their silence proves “again and again that they are not actually interested in human rights, but only in shaming Israel and libeling it around the world,” Netanyahu charged. “They use the important ideal of human rights as a political tool to bash Israel.”

The Israeli premier called on the international community to work to help free “these innocent Palestinians whose imprisonment is yet another proof of the Palestinian refusal to make peace.”

The four were subsequently released on Sunday following mounting international pressure.

By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News

Efrathuman rightsNetanyahuPalestinian AuthorityRevivi