Sarah Palin says blaming rhetoric for shooting is 'a blood libel'

SARAH Palin ended her near silence on the Arizona shootings yesterday, saying that critics had manufactured a "blood libel" by blaming her rhetoric for contributing to the shooting rampage in Tucson in which six people died and 14 were wounded, including Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords.

• In her video message, Sarah Palin said she and her supporters would not change their rhetoric because of the Arizona shooting

In an eight-minute address posted online, the prominent Republican and ideological figurehead of the right-wing Tea Party movement, said vigorous debates were part of a cherished US political tradition, but added: "Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own.

"Especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible."

The Tuscon shooting on Saturday - carried out by Jared Loughner, 22, who is now in custody - has been seen by some as a product of the increasingly strident and angry rhetoric used by members of the Tea Party and right-wing radio and TV hosts.

As more details have emerged about Loughner, the picture is much more than simply one of a disturbed young man, who held incoherent views and doesn't fit into any easy "right-wing militia" template, such as that of Timothy McVeigh, who murdered 168 people in a bombing of a US federal government building in Oklahoma in 1995.

In the video, posted on her Facebook page, the former Alaska governor - who is considering a presidential run in 2012 - also rejected criticism of a map produced by her staff last year, with crosshairs hovering over a number of swing voting districts, including that of Ms Giffords.

Ms Palin sought to cast that criticism as a broader indictment of the basic rights to free speech exercised by people of all political persuasions.

She said that acts such as the Arizona shooting "begin and end with the criminals who commit them, not collectively with all the citizens of a state; not with those who listen to talk radio; not with maps of swing districts used by both sides of the aisle. Not with law-abiding citizens who respectfully exercise their First Amendment rights at campaign rallies. Not with those who proudly voted in the last election."

The term "blood libel" is generally used to mean the false accusation that Jews murder Christian children to use their blood in religious rituals. The false claim was circulated for centuries in Europe to incite anti-semitism, and remains a belief in parts of the Middle East.

Ms Palin added: "President Obama and I may not agree on everything, but I know he would join me in affirming the health of our democratic process."

President Barack Obama was in Tucson last night to attend a memorial service for the victims of the shooting.In her speech, Ms Palin quoted former president Ronald Reagan as saying that society should not be blamed for the acts of an individual.

She said, "It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions. When we say, 'Take up our arms,' we are talking about our vote.

"Yes, our debates are full of passion, but we settle our political differences respectfully."

She said she and her supporters would not change their rhetoric because of the shooting in Arizona.