Israeli Ambassador To Greece Responds to Flydubai Incident

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Israel’s ambassador to Greece, Pninat Yanay, has warned against hate incitement after an alleged attempt to hijack a Flydubai flight to Tel Aviv, saying the incident showed how hatred could escalate into an attempt to cause mass destruction.

In a Facebook post, Yanay described the dramatic moments aboard the aircraft and urged people to imagine the fear experienced by passengers and families as the plane appeared to descend towards the ground.

“Listen to the crying in the background,” Yanay wrote, referring to recordings from inside the aircraft. “The crying of babies. The crying of children.”

She said the scenes aboard the Flydubai aircraft, which was travelling to Tel Aviv, could have preceded “a new September 11”, adding that “this is what hatred looks like when it reaches its peak in a delusional mind”.

Yanay argued that hate incitement can eventually turn into a decision to cause destruction.

“This time, in the mind of a pilot,” she wrote, adding that she viewed the incident as an example of what she called the danger posed by “Islamist terrorism”.

According to Yanay, the presence of Israeli passengers helped prevent a larger disaster because some of them knew how to restrain the alleged attacker.

“As there were Israelis there, there were also fighters who knew how to restrain him and prevent the disaster,” she wrote, attributing the observation to “a wise man” she met in Athens.

She also referred to a doctor who rushed to help save lives and to another person who took control of the cockpit, saying the outcome could have been very different.

“The civilised world cannot allow the incitement of hatred of any kind,” Yanay wrote.

She warned that hate incitement can act as “the fuel of disasters that are slowly prepared in the dark” and called on people not to allow it to dominate their streets.

Yanay further accused “jihadist terrorism” of seeking to harm Israel, undermine relationships established through the Abraham Accords and spread fear and hatred between peoples.

“But it will not succeed,” she wrote, arguing that terrorism should not determine the future of Israel’s relations with countries that signed the agreements.

“The ties we have built are stronger than hatred,” Yanay concluded, adding that Israel’s commitment to strengthening those relationships was stronger than attempts to damage them.

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