PA leader Abbas celebrates with released Palestinian terrorists in 2013. (Issam Rimawi/FLASH90)
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, retracting on his most recent blood libel, claims that he never intended to offend the Jewish people.
Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas has disavowed comments he made this week about an alleged plot by rabbis calling on Jewish settlers to poison the drinking water of Palestinians.
In a fiery speech to the European Union (EU) in Brussels on Thursday, Abbas repeated unsubstantiated claims of an Israeli rabbis’ plot to poison Palestinian wells, sparking accusations of anti-Semitism. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Abbas showed his “true face” by spreading such a “blood libel” and called on him to cease inciting against Israel.
Abbas appealed to the EU for help to “end Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and support for a lasting peace agreement,” charging that “Israel has turned ‘our country’ into an open-air prison.”
While in Brussels, however, Abbas refused to meet with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, notwithstanding attempts by the Europeans to arrange such a meeting and despite Rivlin’s consent.
“It has become evident that the alleged statements by a rabbi on poisoning Palestinian wells, which were reported by various media outlets, are baseless,” Abbas’ office acknowledged in a statement on Saturday.
The PA leader, after years of inciting violence against Israeli Jews and glorifying terror, rejected anti-Semitic accusations leveled against him, saying that he “didn’t intend to do harm to Judaism or to offend Jewish people around the world.”
By: United with Israel Staff
With files from AP
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