Abbas calls for international investigation of ‘settler violence’

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called on Sunday for an international investigation into attacks against Palestinians by Jewish settlers and Israeli security forces.

During a meeting with UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry in Ramallah on Sunday, Abbas called for the establishment of an international investigative committee to examine “the murder of the youth Muhammed Abu Khdeir, the assault [by Israeli border policemen] against his cousin, the killing of 16 Palestinians in the past two weeks and the continued kidnapping attempts.”

Palestinian media have reported several kidnapping attempts of Palestinians by Jewish extremists in the days since the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teens, Eyal Yifrach, Naftali Fraenkel and Gil-ad Shaar, on June 12.

Tensions between Jews and Arabs were further inflamed with the kidnapping-murder last week of Abu Khdeir, a 16-year-old Palestinian from East Jerusalem, who police believe was burned alive by Jewish terrorists as a revenge attack for the murder of the Jewish teens.

According to Abbas, attacks against Palestinians by West Bank Jewish settlers “have increased 41 percent since the beginning of the year, and Israel’s government refuses to seriously investigate and punish these groups, especially when it comes to treating [Jewish groups] called ‘price tag’ as terror organizations.”

The Palestinian Authority was investigating every available avenue “to rein in the crimes of the settlers.”

In his meeting with Serry, Abbas also asked that international organizations classify extremist Jewish “price tag” groups as illegal terrorist organizations.

“I asked that international protection be given to the Palestinian people in all occupied Palestinian lands” against attacks by Jewish extremists and Israeli security forces, Abbas told Palestinian media following the meeting.