The UK Foreign Office is turning a blind eye to Palestinian incitement due to “a pathological desire to appear balanced whatever the cost”, Sir Eric Pickles has said.

Writing for the Conservative blog ConservativeHome, the former communities secretary and chairman of Conservative Friends of Israel said David Cameron had been “unequivocal in his condemnation of Palestinian incitement” in his speech to the Israeli parliament last year. “He recognises that democracies must stand shoulder to shoulder together against the threat to innocent civilians on our streets,” Pickles said.

But the prime minister’s message had become “lost in translation in the bowels of the Foreign Office, which has an almost pathological desire to appear balanced whatever the cost”.

“The call for both sides to end incitement equates the acts of a handful of extremists on the very fringes of Israeli society to the state-sanctioned incitement of violence rife within Palestinian society,” Pickles said. “By doing so, the Foreign Office is turning a blind eye to what is a glaring problem for the Palestinians.”

A recent surge in terrorist attacks has seen civilians killed on both sides of the conflict, leaving at least 30 Palestinians and seven Israelis dead. A wave of knife attacks by Palestinians has led to a massive security deployment in Arab-majority parts of East Jerusalem, a move which Human Rights Watch has condemned.

“When terrorists murdered Lee Rigby on the streets of London in the name of an extremist Islamist ideology, our government set about challenging the propagators of such a vile ideology,” wrote Pickles.

“Faced with the same challenge, Israel deserves our support and empathy. When can parents taking their children to school or shoppers quietly waiting for a bus ever be a legitimate target?”

Pickles said the UK government could not afford to be silent on the issue. “Now is the time for clarity in our policy towards Palestinian Authority-sanctioned incitement,” he said. “Each incident of incitement must be condemned and DfID [Department for International Development] aid should be conditioned on the willingness of the Palestinian Authority to crack down on incitement.”