Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas incited violence at the Temple Mount with his condolence letter to the Israeli-Arab family of the man who allegedly shot right wing activist Yehuda Glick last week, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Monday.
"I am acting in every way to calm the atmosphere around the Temple Mount, but Abbas is adding fuel to the fire,” Netanyahu said.
Abbas wrote "a letter of encouragement and support" to the family of Mu'taz Hijazi, the man from Abu Tor, Jerusalem suspected of attempting to assassinate Glick on Wednesday night, as he stood outside the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem. Glick is in serious condition at Sha’are Tzedek Hospital.
Police killed Hijazi on Thursday morning as he resisted arrest, shooting at officers.
With his letter Abbas is "encouraging and supporting others who wish to do criminal acts like [shooting Glick],” Netanyahu said.
"The international community is silent as [Abbas] encourages continued incitement, rioting and violence. We will not be quiet and continue speaking the truth and defending our rights," Netanyahu declared.
In the letter, dated November 1, Abbas wrote that he received with “anger and condemnation the news of the heinous crime committed by the gangs of killing and terrorism in the Israeli occupation army.”
Declaring Hejazi, who was shot dead by police forces hours after the assassination attempt, a “martyr,” Abbas wrote that the killing of Hejazi has been added to the “crimes of the Israeli occupation army against our people since the Nakba [in 1948.”
“This act won’t intimidate our people, but would increase its steadfastness in its homeland,” Abbas wrote in his letter to the family.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman also attacked Abbas during a Monday evening press conference with visiting Danish Foreign Minister Danish Foreign Minister Martin Lidegaard.
“To call a terrorist a martyr, a Shahid, is crosses a red line,” said Liberman adding that Abbas planned to give the family money from a fund that had European Union support. Its impossible to achieve a strategic breakthrough in the peace process without a partner on the other side, Liberman said.
On Sunday he said that Abbas’ letter proved that the Palestinian leader was a partner for terror not peace.
“This shows that Abu Mazen is a partner, a partner for terror, a partner for terrorists, a partner for murders,” Liberman angrily said.
He called on the international community to condemn Abbas for helping the Israel-Palestinian conflict disintegrate into the realm of threats and violence.
On Monday, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein wrote on Facebook that "Abbas' outrageous step of comforting the family of the terrorist who tried to murder Yehuda Glick proves the truth of [former foreign minister] Abba Eban's words that the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. "Once again Abbas is doing everything to show that we have no one to talk to. Wild incitement and encouragement to terrorists do not move us forward; rather they make the hatred permanent," Edelstein wrote.