There has been a spate of such attacks in Jerusalem and elsewhere lately — and a billboard in Nazareth calling for them, but of course only AFDI billboards and advertisements are offensive. Last October the Islamic State issued this call to Muslims in the West: “If you are not able to find an IED [improvised explosive device] or a bullet … smash his head with a rock, or slaughter him with a knife, or run him over with your car, or throw him down from a high place, or choke him, or poison him. If you are unable to do so, then burn his home, car or business. Or destroy his crops.”
Note AFP’s sneer quotes around “terrorist”: “Palestinian ‘terrorist’ shot dead after ramming car into Israeli police officers in Jerusalem,” AFP, May 20, 2015:
Israeli police say they have shot dead a Palestinian man in east Jerusalem after he rammed them with his car, injuring two officers.
Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said the driver had veered off the road and struck two border policemen in the Palestinian neighbourhood of A-Tur on the Mount of Olives.
“Another border policeman opened fire at the terrorist and neutralised him,” she said, confirming that the driver had died.
The two policemen were moderately injured in the attack and taken to different hospitals in the city, she said.
There was no immediate information on the driver’s identity, other than the fact he was a resident of east Jerusalem.
It was the latest in a string of lone-wolf attacks by Palestinians using their cars to ram pedestrians or police, in a trend that began in Jerusalem in October but has also spread to the West Bank….