Minister of Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan during this weeks cabinet meeting spoke about the Palestinian Authority and the BDS movement, claiming there is a “sharp rise in cooperation” to boycott the State of Israel.

At the meeting Erdan revealed that the Palestinian Authority is strengthening its support for “terror-linked” BDS organizations – by not only spreading incitement, but also glorifying terrorist in its institution of its “pay-for-slay” program, wherein the Palestinian government finances terrorist salaries while they serve out their sentences in Israeli prisons.

“Not only is the Palestinian Authority continuing to incite against Israel through its education system while paying terrorists’ salaries, but it is also strengthening its relationship with terror-linked BDS organizations,” Erdan said. “For there to be a chance for peace with the Palestinians, there must be an unequivocal demand to stop the calls for incitement and boycotts stemming from the PA. The Palestinian Authority, terrorist groups, and BDS organizations are all working in the same manner: calling for the delegitimization of the State of Israel as a Jewish state.”

Erdan alluded to the attempted boycott of the Eurovision song contest in Israel, as well as the Palestinian education system continuing to educate Palestinian students to “hate” the Jewish people and delegitimize Israel. Examples of these educational programs include study tours with convicted terrorists, cultural activities such as singing songs about killing Jews, as well as textbooks filled with calls for the “liberation of Palestine” from “the Jews.”

“The first step before anything else must be to demand from the Palestinians to stop their spreading of incitement to terrorism and to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Minister Erdan revealed that there has been a sharp rise over the last six months in PA support for BDS, including President Abbas’s advisor for international relations and foreign affairs, Nabil Shaath, calling for ‘a boycott against Israel in order to pressure it to end its occupation in the Palestinian territories.’ In contrast to its official policy in the past, the PA and its senior officials are now openly expressing support for BDS,” Erdan’s office stated in a press release.

In regards to the boycott of Eurovision, Palestinian Culture Minister Atef Abu Saif said that, “the existence of the event on the ruins of Jaffa is a crude expression of the colonialist ideology based on distortion and erasure, while Israel is considered a cancerous entity within the free world.”

Basem Naim, who holds the BDS portfolio in the terrorist group Hamas, also called for the boycott of the Eurovision Song Contest: “Do not whitewash Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians.”

Within this protest the Ministry of Strategic Affairs revealed how BDS was conducting a “fraudulent campaign on social media against Israel hosting” Eurovision, including hundreds of fake accounts being used to manipulate public opinion on the matter – many of which were shut down after the Ministry notified social media conglomerates of the problem.