PA calls for Pope to refuse Israeli award

Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki yesterday called for the Pope to refuse an award from Israel’s Bar-Ilan University.

In a letter to the Vatican, Al-Maliki expressed his “deep concerns” about the Pope’s acceptance of the award.

According to Al-Maliki, Bar-Ilan University is an educational institution which most supports racist Israeli policies and encourages settlements and aggression against Palestinians, as well as inciting hatred against Christians and Muslims.

He outlined examples of the university’s racist policies, including that of Israeli researcher in Arabic Literature Mordechai Kedar who has advocated for raping Palestinian women to deter resistance fighters.

“The only thing that deters them is if they know that their sister or their mother will be raped in the event that they are caught,” he said on Israeli radio.

Al-Maliki also mentioned Professor Hillel Weiss who addressed PA President Mahmoud Abbas saying: “Listen, Abu Mazen, you aren’t a people and therefore there’s no genocide. The faster you admit that you aren’t a people and don’t belong anywhere within the boundaries of the Land of Israel, the better it will be for you – the faster you voluntarily vacate this land.”