PNN/Bethlehem

In an interview for the Al Jazeera English’s current affairs show, ‘UpFront’ that will air today, Israel’s Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Tizipi Hotovely had some serious and dangerous comments regarding Palestine and the region.

Hotovely was asked by UpFront host Mehdi Hasan to respond to a November report from Shin Bet, which said that Palestinians were carrying out attacks to “escape from a bleak realty which they perceive as unchangeable” and to the head of Israeli occupation military intelligence’s recent claim that some Palestinians have carried out attacks because they “felt they had nothing to lose”

“This analysis is absolutely wrong. I can give you thousands of other opinions. Terrorism is the main problem, is the main issue, nor frustration,” she argued.

Hotovely also suggested that Palestinians are “under the influence of ISIS”:

“There are many other people that are saying that the Palestinian society today is choosing.. the extremist side, under the influence of ISIS, as the atmosphere of the way the youngsters are being raised, and unfortunately also when they are raised under the very hard incitement of the Palestinian Authority,” she said.

She refused, after being asked 12 times, to offer her personal opinion on the creation of a Palestinian state: she repeatedly chose not to answer the question, preferring only to offer up the official policy of Israel’s government:

“I’m representing a government that is declaring in a very clear way on a policy of a two-state solution… I am representing the policy of my government.”

Hotovely currently serves as a member of the Knesset for the Israeli Likud party and is well known for her rejection of a Palestinian State and for openly defending the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

UpFront will air today at 07:30pm GMT.