Palestinian leaders are responsible for inciting teenagers into perpetrating the current wave of violence against Israelis, a leading Palestinian human rights activist has said.

Acting Israeli Police Chief Bentzi Sau told the Knesset this week that more than half of those arrested on terror charges in recent weeks have been teenagers. Bassem Eid, the former director of the Palestinian Human Rights, told the Jewish News Service in an interview on Tuesday that Palestinians—living in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza—are encouraged to believe that their lives “are getting worse and worse.”

“I don’t think this is an intifada,” contended Eid, saying that the current violence “is not organized by any political body. It is organized by incitement.” …

Palestinians in Jerusalem, according to Eid, “have the feeling that they are the front of the whole struggle right now for the Al-Aqsa mosque.” He added that Palestinian leaders in Ramallah have been singing the praises of Jerusalem terrorists, claiming they are “exceeding any level of expectations in the struggle.” …

“Unfortunately, such kind of incitement will probably bring more and more attacks right now against Jews,” said Eid.

Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki added that frustrated Palestinians blame Israel for the occupation, but also blame the failure of the Palestinian Authority to “deliver a state, or build clean, efficient, and strong public institutions.” A poll taken by Shikaki’s Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that 79 percent of Palestinians believe that the Palestinian Authority is corrupt, and 53 percent believe it to be a burden on the Palestinian people.

The Palestinian experts found that youth who don’t remember what life was like before the 1993 Oslo Accords, which established the Palestinian Authority and the two-state solution framework, favor violence more than the general population, though by a narrow margin.

[Photo: Yonatan Sindel / Flash90 ]