Netanyahu accuses Abbas of incitement and 'causing acts of terror'
Articles on the actual position and words of Pres. Abbas from Ma’an, MEE, Times of Israel.
Anger about the Israeli state’s refusal to prevent Israeli right-wingers from entering Haram al-Sharif but barring Palestinians has for several years been a primary cause of conflict between Palestinians and the secular and religious and right-wing. Photo October 2014 from MEMO, uncredited.
Abbas still seeking to restore order, ‘reaching for peace’
By Ma’an news
October 14, 2015
RAMALLAH — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Wednesday evening in a speech that “his hand is still reaching for peace,” repeating his administration’s stance that the recent wave of violent upheaval that has gripped the occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel must be extinguished.
Abbas said that while the Palestinian Authority still seeks to de-escalate the current upheaval, “peace, security and stability will only be reached when the occupation [of Palestine] ends and an independent state is established with East Jerusalem as its capital.”
The president added that “we will continue our political, national and legal fight and we will not remain tied to agreements that Israel does not respect.”
At the end of last month, during a speech at the United Nations General Assembly, Abbas announced that the Palestinian Authority would no longer abide by past agreements made with Israel.
During his speech on Wednesday, Abbas called upon Palestinians to unite and be aware of Israeli plans to thwart national projects, adding that “we will not hesitate to defend our people and protect them.”
“Offensive attacks are escalating against our people, land and religious sites,” he said, referring to the threat of a change in the status quo at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound that sparked the recent upheaval.
Abbas said that he would not accept a change of the status quo concerning the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound or any moves that threaten the site’s sanctity as an exclusively Muslim holy place.
Palestinians began to object to new restrictions and schedules at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in August, after Israeli authorities began to impose extra regulations on Palestinians from entering the site, while creating a daily schedule for right-wing Jews to be allowed access to tour the compound.
The compound, venerated by Jews as the Temple Mount, is under control of the Jordanian Islamic Endowment group. According to agreements made decades ago between Israel and the endowment, non-Muslim worship is forbidden at the site, however recently, right-wing groups have increasingly called for supporters to flock to the site, particularly during Jewish holidays over the past few months.
Watching the events unfold, Palestinians began to fear that the agreement was being challenged.
While international bodies called for Israeli authorities to restore calm at the compound, the new regulations instead became ever more restricting. Rallies, protests and strikes against the restrictions were called by various Palestinians bodies.
On Oct. 1 suspected Palestinians shot and killed two Israeli settlers in the northern West Bank in what is believed to be an attack motivated by the conflict around the Al-Aqsa Mosque. That evening, groups of settlers across the occupied West Bank committed revenge attacks in retribution for the shootings.
The next day Palestinian protests erupted in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and have been ongoing for 13 days, in a wave of upheaval many are calling the Third Intifada, while the Palestinian Authority continues to deny escalations have come to that point.
Since the beginning of the month, 32 Palestinians have been shot dead, 17 of which were killed during clashes, with more than a thousand injured. Meanwhile, Palestinians have been responsible for the deaths of seven Israelis killed during the same time period, with dozens more injured in various attacks.
The Palestinian Authority has rejected the claim that the territory has entered a long term uprising, insisting that the wave of violence can be controlled and peace restored.
Stop urging violence, Abbas tells Fatah militant leaders
In meeting with local Tanzim heads, PA leader forbids use of arms in struggle against Israel, tells others to stop incitement to terror attacks
By Avi Issacharoff, Times of Israel
October 12, 2015
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told the leaders of his Fatah movement’s Tanzim militant wing Sunday to immediately work to calm spiraling tensions with Israel.
According to Palestinian sources, he demanded that the Tanzim representatives, who serve as heads of local branches of the paramilitary group throughout the West Bank, avoid using violence in the struggle against Israel.
Tanzim was founded by Fatah leaders and is loyal to the Palestinian faction, which is headed by Abbas. It gained prominence as a fighting force and a terror organization during the Second Intifada.
Tanzim leaders are thought to be key organizers of many of the protests taking place in the West Bank in recent days, protests that have drawn thousands and swelled the ranks of Palestinians clashing with IDF forces in multiple West Bank cities.
Israeli officials have charged that Tanzim leaders, including the organization’s local leaders, encouraged the growing protests, in part to prevent rival group Hamas from gaining control of developments in the Palestinian street.
Abbas has said several times he is working to calm tensions and doesn’t want to see violent unrest spread, though Israeli officials accuse him of inciting a spate of terror attacks and violent West Bank clashes.
L,Sultan Abu al-Inin recovering from tear gas at Abu Dis protest camp. Abu al-Inin (Eineen) coordinates between the Palestinian Authority and civil society organizations. Feb 2015
Abbas has also spoken in recent days to Fatah leaders who have led calls for more terror attacks against Israelis, including Mahmoud al-Alul and Sultan Abu al-Inin, and demanded that they cease making statements in support of such attacks.
Both al-Alul and Abu al-Inin lauded the Hamas attack outside the West Bank settlement of Itamar earlier this month in which Eitam and Na’ama Henkin were gunned down in front of their four children.
A number of Fatah propaganda posters have also seemed to encourage stabbing attacks against Israelis.
On Sunday, a senior Shin Bet official told the security cabinet that Abbas is not taking part in the incitement to terror attacks and is actively working to prevent further violence and terror attacks.
Abbas told EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in a phone call Sunday that “he is determined to keep the situation under control,” according to an EU statement.
Abbas: Current wave of violence is result of settlers’, security forces’ acts of aggression
By Khaled Abu Toameh, JPost
October 12, 2015
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday that the current wave of violence and unrest was the result of “acts of aggression” by settlers and the Israeli security forces against Palestinians and their holy sites.
Abbas, who was speaking during a dinner with visiting Indian President Pranab Mukherjee in Ramallah, said that the Palestinians’ hands continue to be extended for peace with Israel. He said that he was seeking to achieve peace with Israel through peaceful and legal means.
Abbas denounces ‘aggression’ against Palestinians as violence spikes
Abbas’ speech follows Israeli checkpoints in East Jerusalem and a wave of violence
By MEE and agencies
October 14/15, 2015
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the current escalation of violence in Israel-Palestine on Wednesday from his headquarters in Ramallah, focusing on East Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
“The aggression against our people and holy areas has increased in a manner that disrupts the peace and quiet and requires international intervention,” Abbas said during an event to commemorate the Islamic New Year.
“Only we have rights to Al-Aqsa as Palestinians and Muslims, and no one else has any rights there,” he said.
Israel set up checkpoints on Wednesday in non-settlement areas of occupied East Jerusalem and mobilised hundreds of soldiers as it struggled to stop attacks that have raised fears of a full-blown uprising.
Hours after the first roadblocks were erected, two more knife attacks hit Jerusalem, one outside the Old City and another near the crowded central bus station during rush hour.
In his speech, Abbas referred to the “execution” of an alleged Palestinian attacker in the Pisgat Zeev settlement of East Jerusalem, saying: “We will not agree to continue the situation on our land, and not the policy of occupation and aggression by Israel and its settlers, who commit terror against our people, our homes, our trees, our holy places, and who execute our children in cold blood, as they did to the child Ahmed Mansara and other children in Jerusalem and other places. We will continue our national struggle which is based on self-defence.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office responded to Abbas’ remarks, calling his statements “incitement and lies. The teenager he’s referring to is alive and hospitalised at Hadassah after he stabbed an Israeli child who was riding his bicycle. While Israel is maintaining the status quo on the Temple Mount (the Jewish Israeli name for the Al-Aqsa compound), Abu Mazen (Abbas), with his inciting remarks, is cynically using religion and thus causing acts of terror.”
The first of Wednesday’s attacks occurred when a man, reportedly a 20-year-old from the West Bank city of Hebron, tried to stab a security guard at an entrance to the Old City but was shot dead before harming anyone.
The other saw a 23-year-old Palestinian stab and moderately wound a woman of around 70 before being shot dead by police.
The attack sparked panic among commuters.
With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under immense pressure to halt the violence and frustrated Palestinian youths defying attempts to restore calm, police said 300 Israeli soldiers were joining their patrols.
The government also announced further drastic measures, including easing firearms laws for Israelis and stripping alleged attackers from East Jerusalem of their residency permits.
In Washington, a spokesman said US Secretary of State John Kerry planned to travel to the Middle East soon to seek a return to calm between the sides.
A wave of mainly stabbing attacks by Palestinians has spread fear in Israel, while a gun-and-knife attack on a Jerusalem bus on Tuesday killed two people and led to outrage among Israelis.
A third Israeli was killed in Jerusalem on Tuesday when a Palestinian attacker rammed his car into pedestrians then exited with a knife, making it the city’s bloodiest day in the current wave of unrest.
All three Palestinian suspects in the two incidents were from East Jerusalem, and two were shot dead.
The move to install checkpoints followed a decision by Netanyahu’s security cabinet overnight authorising police to seal off or impose a curfew on parts of Jerusalem.
The upsurge in violence that began on 1 October has led some to warn of the risk of a third Palestinian intifada, or uprising.
Seven Israelis have been killed and dozens wounded.
At least 30 Palestinians have died, the majority of them protesters, some of them youth. Hundreds have been wounded in clashes with Israeli security forces.