State Department accuses Abbas of failing to support non-violence

An annual US State Department report on counter-terrorism singles out Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as failing to consistently maintain a stance supporting non-violence.

“President Mahmoud Abbas has stated in the past a commitment to non-violence, a two-state solution and previous PLO commitments, but he has also made inconsistent statements that appear to contradict and undermine his prior commitments,” the report states.

It quotes once instance in August which he said, “So we say to them, ‘every stone you [used] to build on our land and every house you have built on our land is bound to be destroyed, Allah willing…Jerusalem is ours whether they like it or not… We shall enter Jerusalem – millions of fighters! We shall enter it! All of us, the entire Palestinian people, the entire Arab nation, the Islamic nation, and the Christian nation… They shall all enter Jerusalem…’”

The quote is based on a translation from the Middle East Media Research Institute, a US-based watchdog with strong links to Israel.

Last year, the same report noted only that “PA President Mahmoud Abbas maintained a public commitment to non-violence.”

The report also says the PA’s security forces, which recently cut ties with the US and Israel, cannot manage counter-terror operations on its own.