Mid-afternoon on Tuesday, November 18, 2025, two Palestinian terrorists carried out a terror attack at the Gush Etzion junction. The pair first rammed their car into Israelis standing at a bus stop and then exited the vehicle with knives to stab more victims. IDF forces at the scene neutralized the terrorists. 70-year-old Israeli, Aharon Cohen, was murdered in the attack. Another woman, in her 40s, was severely wounded, and two others, a 30-year-old and a 15-year-old, were moderately wounded in the attack.
An integral part of the Palestinian Authority’s policy to foment hatred against Israel and Israelis is to present an alternative reality in which Israel is a mindless aggressor against Palestinian victims. Domestically, the policy is used as part of a wider strategy to create an environment of incitement, constantly emotionally charging the Palestinians in preparation for direct incitement to terror and murder. Internationally, the policy is used to demonize Israel and depict its actions as unlawful.
The policy was clearly implemented by WAFA, the official mouthpiece of the PA, which inverted reality and described the deadly terror attack as Palestinian victimhood. According to WAFA, there was no terror attack. No Israelis were murdered or injured.
Rather, according to WAFA, quoting the PA Ministry of Health, “Two Palestinian youths from the occupied West Bank district of Hebron were killed this evening by Israeli forces’ gunfire south of Bethlehem.” According to WAFA, “Ibrahim Imran Al-Atrash, 18, from the city of Hebron, and Waleed Mohammad Khalil Sabarneh, 18, from the town of Beit Ummar,” were killed “after Israeli forces opened fire at them while they were present south of Bethlehem.” Simply present. Not carrying out a terror attack, when Israeli forces “opened fire at youths near the junction of the illegal Gush Etzion colony bloc south of Bethlehem.”
The Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs conducted a study of WAFA’s English-language coverage for the month of July 2025, and found that 99.9% of articles related to Israel were explicitly negative, spreading false and dangerous narratives. Needless to say, WAFA content in Arabic is no better than its English content.
Since creating an atmosphere of hatred and Palestinian victimhood directly contributes to continued violence, one of the most urgently needed reforms of the PA is to permanently close WAFA.
