TEL AVIV – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction praised the Tuesday murder of a rabbi in the West Bank with a poem celebrating the attack.
On its official Facebook page, Fatah posted:
The operation lasted 40 seconds.
Distance b/w the 2 cars was 20 meters.
No. of bullets fired:22.
Shooter was well trained.
The result: a dead settler.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Arab language spokesperson Ofir Gendelman slammed Fatah for expressing “admiration” for the murder of Rabbi Raziel Shevach.
“Abbas’ Fatah org ADMIRES in a Facebook post the murder last night of Rabbi Raziel Shevach, a father of 6, in a drive by shooting,” he tweeted.
Following the murder, both President Donald Trump’s Middle East negotiator Jason Greenblatt and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman slammed the Palestinian leadership for glorifying the attack.
“Palestinian terrorists murdered Rabbi Shevach, father of 6 young children. Hamas & Fatah glorify his murder. This violence & horrific glorification will only incite more attacks & rob Palestinians of the chance for peace. I pray for the Shevach family,” Greenblatt wrote on Twitter.
Friedman also took to Twitter to condemn the attack.
“An Israeli father of six was killed last night in cold blood by Palestinian terrorists. Hamas praises the killers and PA laws will provide them financial rewards. Look no further to why there is no peace,” Friedman tweeted.
At a reception for foreign journalists on Wednesday evening, Netanyahu praised the U.S. envoy for blaming the lack of peace on the Palestinians’ endorsement of terror.
“I want to congratulate Ambassador [David] Friedman, the American ambassador to Israel, who tweeted the truth, unvarnished, straightforward,” Netanyahu said. “He said some important things. The important thing is that [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud] Abbas’s government is supporting the kind of murderers that murdered a father of six. Such people in our jails get $355 million a year, they and their families, from the Palestinian Authority. That is something that is untenable.”
Netanyahu also blasted Abbas for saying that in response to Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the Palestinians can no longer consider the U.S. to be a broker for peace.
“You know that’s not going to change. You know that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel under any deal, ultimate or not. Everybody understands that — with a deal, without a deal, Jerusalem is Israel’s capital,” Netanyahu said.
“Mr. Abbas has used this statement to seek a way to essentially run away from the negotiations. He’s done it before,” he added.
“The last thing you should do as journalists is give him credence. If you want to negotiate peace, you’ve got to negotiate. We’ve never put any preconditions on negotiations, and I don’t do so now. And, of course, if President Trump puts forward his proposal, his ideas, I’ll study them very carefully,” he added.