Sarah Palin defends ‘blood libel’ use

By ANDY BARR | 1/17/11 10:19 PM EST Updated: 1/18/11 10:34 AM EST

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin insisted Monday that she did know the definition of, and correctly used, the term “blood libel” in recently striking back at her critics.

“Blood libel obviously means being falsely accused of having blood on your hands,” Palin said in a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity.

VIDEO: Full FOX interview

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It was Palin’s first interview since the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and the political fallout that followed. After catching flak for rhetoric that led some to pin blame for the shootings partly on her, Palin released an eight-minute video statement last week that denounced the mainstream media for having manufactured “a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn.”

That led to reprimands from Jewish leaders for her use of the term, which has its roots in false, anti-Semitic charges from centuries ago that Jews would use the blood of Christian children to make Passover matzo.

Asked to respond to critics who questioned if Palin really knew what she was saying, the former governor responded: “I don’t know how the heck they would or wouldn’t know” if she understood the definition.

“It goes back to the Jewish people being falsely accused,” she said. “A group of people being falsely accused of having blood on their hands.”

As Palin defended the term by insisting that she has been unfairly targeted, the former governor declared that her response to the tragedy was not “about me.”

“My defense wasn’t self-defense, it was defending those who were falsely accused,” she insisted. “I was puzzled as to why, and before facts were even gathered, why the mainstream media was pointing fingers.”

And her sometimes inflammatory rhetoric, Palin said, has not crossed a line. “When I talk about being up in arms, I’m talking about getting to the voting booth,” she contended.

Palin also conceded that the icons used on a map created by her PAC showing her 20 congressional targets for 2010 were indeed “crosshairs” rather than “surveyor symbols,” as one of her aides initially claimed.

Palin acknowledged that the map — which showed a target on the district district represented by Giffords, who remains hospitalized — was taken down following the shooting. She did however defend the use of the crosshairs icons, pointing to other examples from across the political spectrum.

“It’s not an original use of an icon or website,” she said.

In addition to defending her actions and those of her political committee, Palin also went on offense for part of the interview — accusing her liberal critics of trying to silence her, and echoing conservative criticisms that the atmosphere during President Barack Obama’s speech at the University of Arizona last week was too much like a “pep rally.”

“Certainly I agree with the idea of being civil… but we should not use an event like that in Arizona to stifle debate,” Palin said. “They can’t make us sit down and shut up. And if they succeeded in doing that our Republic would be destroyed.”

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