Foreign Ministry chief: Abbas is undermining coexistence

Foreign Ministry Director General Dore Gold slams comments made Wednesday by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas about Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount.

“Today the world is divided between those trying to undermine religious coexistence and those trying to protect it,” Gold says in a Thursday statement. “By saying that the ‘filthy feet’ of Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount desecrate it, Mahmoud Abbas has now clarified on which side he stands.”

In a Ramallah address Wednesday, Abbas said, “We will not forsake our country and we will keep every inch of our land. Every drop of blood spilled in Jerusalem is pure, every shahid [martyr] will reach paradise, and every injured person will be rewarded by God.”

He adds: “The Al-Aqsa Mosque is ours. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is ours as well. They have no right to desecrate the mosque with their dirty feet, we won’t allow them to do that.”