Abbas Incitement at UN Encourages Future Violence

On Saturday, a Palestinian terror attack killed two Jews and wounded two others. One of the perpetrators described the attack as the beginning of a “third intifada,” and thanking President Mahmoud Abbas for his speech at the UN, although the attacker did criticize Abbas’ failure to comment more firmly on Al Aqsa Mosque.

Palestinian Authority leader, and Fatah President Mahmoud Abbas delivered his speech to the U.N. General Assembly on September 30, 2015. In his speech Abbas addressed that Palestine would no longer abide by the Oslo Peace Accords.

Abbas advocated the Palestinians should no longer remain faithful to the agreement arguing, “we cannot continue to be bound by these signed agreements with Israel and Israel must assume fully all its responsibility as an occupying power.”

On September 10^th, the Palestinian flag was raised at the United Nations following a vote of 119 out of 193 in favor. The European countries that voted ‘yes’ were France, Russia, Sweden, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, Luxembourg, Belgium, Malta, and Poland. 45 EU member states chose to abstain, while 8 voted ‘no’, including the U.S.

After Abbas’s speech at the United Nations headquarters for the first time, Abbas called the flag raising a “moment of hope” and the international community to recognize “the independence of the state of Palestine, peacefully resolving the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict.” Mustafa Barghouti, the Palestine Liberation Organization Central Council Member, described this event as “an important symbolic step.”

Mahmoud Abbas’s speech at the UN abandoning the Oslo Accord, together with the symbolic effect of raising the Palestinian flag clearly helped to incite Palestinian terrorists to step up attacks on Israel.

On October 1^st, Fatah’s armed wing, The Abdel Qader al-Husseini Brigades, opened fired on the car of Eitam and Naama Henkin with their four children while driving home, between Itamar and Elon Moreh. The parents were killed in front of their children.

Fatah, which is Abbas’ party, claimed responsibility for the attack by issuing a statement saying, “With Allah’s help and in keeping with our people right for resistance and our duty to sacred jihad, our forces on Thursday night carried out a necessary action in which they fired on a car of occupying settlers that left the settlement of Itamar, built on Palestinian lands in the South of the city of Hebron.”

Netanyahu responded to this attack by saying “wild Palestinian incitement leads to acts of terrorism and murder such as we have seen this evening.” Netanyahu will consult with Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on how to apprehend the killers who fled the scene. Shortly after the car attack, unidentified individuals set fire to a car in the Palestinian village of Bitilu near Ramallah no one was injured.

Given the current level of incitement by Palestinian leadership, including President Abbas, it would be reasonable to expect continued low-level terrorist attacks, including stabbings and shootings to continue. Israeli officials are taking swift action in an attempt to tamp down on possible violent outbreaks, but the possibility of a third intifada cannot be ruled out.