Abbas considers appeal to UN over ‘Temple Mount violations’

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is considering an appeal to the United Nations Security Council over what he termed as Israel’s continuous violation of Palestinian property as well as ongoing settler violence in the West Bank.

In a televised speech Thursday, Abbas claimed that settlers had “killed and maimed” Palestinians, and said that the IDF did nothing in order to prevent such acts, Israel Radio reported.

The PA chairman also condemned the “serious Israeli violations” in East Jerusalem, specifically on the Temple Mount.

“Israel has no right to split up the Al-Aqsa Mosque, neither physically nor in terms of prayer times,” Abbas said, and stressed that “all East Jerusalem is Palestinian.”

Abbas had made many of these same allegations on Monday when a group of Labor MKs, and one from Hatnua, visited him at the Muqata headquarters in Ramallah.

Abbas went on to criticize Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying the latter’s insistence on Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state proved he was unwilling to reach a peace agreement.

“Netanyahu’s refusal to recognize a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders, his insistence that a united Jerusalem is Israel’s eternal capital and his demand that we recognize the State of Israel as a Jewish state indicate that he isn’t interested in continuing with the negotiations,” said Abbas.

Israel Radio reported that the Palestinian leader further asserted that the economic situation in the West Bank was caused by Israel’s “continued occupation.”

Abbas did not address the recent murders of IDF soldiers Tomer Hazan and Gal Gabriel Kobi at the hands of Palestinians, nor did he address the shooting of nine-year-old Noam Glick by an apparent Palestinian gunman last Saturday.

Earlier this week, Hamas Political Bureau Chief Khaled Mashaal called for Arabs and Muslims worldwide to come up with a strategy for countering what he called the “Judaization” of Jerusalem and the danger to the Al-Aqsa Mosque at the hands of Israel.

The Muslim world must prepare for a struggle with “the enemy” to “free” the city, he said.

The Hamas leader, who is currently living in Qatar after leaving Syria due to his organization’s support for anti-Assad rebels, added that the current peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority are increasing the danger to Muslim Jerusalem.

The Times of Israel Staff contributed to this report