Israel Accuses Mahmoud Abbas of Incitement Over ‘Execution’ Claim
Image by Israel Government
Israel accused Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas of incitement after he accused Israel of “executing” a 13-year-old who took part in a stabbing attack.
The 13-year-old boy, Ahmed Mansra of eastern Jerusalem, was seriously injured by a car as he attempted to flee from the scene of the stabbing of an Israeli teen who was riding a bicycle in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Zeev.
Abbas made the accusation Wednesday evening in a public televised speech from Ramallah in which he also said that “Aggressive attacks are escalating against our people, land and religious sites,” and called for international intervention.
Abbas said that the Palestinians “will not agree to the continuation of the situation on our lands, nor to the policy of occupation and aggression of Israel and its settlers who are terrorizing our people, homes, trees, holy places and who execute our boys in cold blood, as they did with the boy Ahmed Mansra and other children in Jerusalem and other places.”
“We will continue our political, national and legal fight and we will not remain tied to agreements that Israel does not respect,” he threatened.
Abbas accused Israel of trying to change status quo on the Temple Mount, an accusation which has fueled the recent wave of Palestinian attacks against Israel. “Al-Aqsa is our right as Palestinians and as Muslims and no one else has a right there,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said that Israel has no plans to change the status quo on the Temple Mount.
“Abu Mazen’s comments last night were incitement and lies,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement, using Abbas’ nom de guerre. The statement added that Ahmed Mansra is alive at Hadassah Hospital, where he is listed in light-to-moderate condition.
The government on Thursday released a video of the teen eating in his hospital bed. On Wednesday it released a video showing the teen and his 15-year-old cousin wielding knives as they chased after an Israeli teen who was hospitalized in serious condition with multiple stab wounds.
“While Israel maintains the status quo on the Temple Mount, Abu Mazen, with his words of incitement, makes cynical use of religion and thus brings about terrorism,” the statement said.
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