Netanyahu condemns "glorification" of settler family killers

Jan 29, 2012, 19:28 GMT

Jerusalem - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday condemned what he called Palestinian incitement to kill Israelis, including the 'glorification' of the killers of a settler family.

An aunt of one of the two killers said, on a television programme about Palestinians jailed in Israel, that her nephew was a 'hero' and a 'legend.'

In March, two Palestinian cousins infiltrated a northern West Bank settlement, broke into a house, and stabbed to death five members of a family - the parents, two of their sons aged 11 and 4, and a 3-month-old girl.

An Israeli court sentenced the two to five life terms each.

Israel was keen on direct negotiations, Netanyahu said, but added, 'we have our disappointments.'

He told visiting Irish Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore, 'One of them occurred this week when official Palestinian television broadcasts a glorification of the killers.'

Calling for 'prompt condemnation' by the international community, Netanyahu said: 'This comes on the heels of the Palestinian mufti's call to murder Jews wherever they are.'

Jerusalem's top religious leader, Sheikh Muhammed Hussein, sparked an uproar earlier in January during an anniversary celebration of the Palestinian Fatah party, when he cited a traditional Islamic verse and called on Muslims to fight and kill Jews as they 'hide behind stones and trees.'

Read more about Palestine