PA head Mahmoud Abbas (L) and France’s President Francois Hollande. (AP/Thibault Camus)

PA leader Mahmoud Abbas warned of further escalation of violence in Jerusalem and the surrounding area, which he personally incites. 

Palestinian Authority (PA) head Mahmoud Abbas warned Tuesday of a further escalation in the violence in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria if clashes over the Temple Mount persist.

“What is happening is very dangerous,” Abbas said after meeting with French President Francois Hollande in Paris, according to the Palestinian Ma’an news agency.

Abbas called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “stop” the chaos in Jerusalem, and warned against “an intifada (uprising),” which he claimed “we don’t want.”

Hollande called for “peace, calm and the respect of principles.”

“I expressed our attachment to the status quo over the mosque compound,” he said after the talks with Abbas.

Abbas Inciting to the Riots

However, Abbas himself is responsible for the latest wave of religiously motivated violence in Jerusalem, Israel’s government and security forces charged.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Israel’s commitment to maintaining the status quo on the Temple Mount. “We are not altering the status quo. Elements that incite with baseless, wild provocations – to the effect that Israel is trying to prevent Muslim prayer on the Temple Mount or wants to destroy the mosques, or other wild things that are being said – it is they who are inciting. This incitement comes from the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic Movement in Israel, Hamas, and – to our chagrin – with the active participation of the Palestinian Authority.”

Minister Ayelet Shaked. (AP/Gali Tibbon, Pool)

He said blame for the violence should be placed not on Jerusalem, but on “Ramallah, Gaza and agitators in the Galilee” as well as on “Turkey, from which incitement issues forth on a daily, even hourly, basis.”

“Al-Aqsa is ours and so is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,” Abbas said at a meeting with Jerusalem activists last Wednesday. “They [the Jews] have no right to desecrate them with their filthy feet. We won’t allow them to do so, and we will do whatever we can to defend Jerusalem.”

Israeli security officials said Abbas and Hamas were inciting the attacks, explaining that they were utilizing the holiday season to instigate violence for personal political gains.

Speaking on IDF Radio on Thursday, Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked accused Abbas and King Abdullah II of Jordan for the wave of violence. “To stop the violence in Jerusalem all that is needed is the word given by Abu Mazen [Abbas] and King Abdullah [to stop the rioting].”

IDF Radio later reported that the king did not appreciate these remarks nor other similar statements made by Israeli officials. Abdullah refused to speak to Netanyahu, who wished to discuss with him ways to put an end to the days of violence.

By: Max Gelber, United with Israel

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