TEL AVIV — The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has released a statement harshly criticizing U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman for his factual statement that the Palestinian Authority rewards terror with payments to Palestinians who are imprisoned by Israel or were killed due to their involvement in terrorist attacks.
After a terror attack in the West Bank killed an Israeli citizen, Rabbi Raziel Shevach, a father of six, Friedman criticized Hamas’ praise of the attack and the fact that the Palestinian Authority continues to finance those who have committed such murderous atrocities.
“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,” Friedman tweeted.
In a special statement to the media, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry claimed that Freidman’s comments “join in an unclear manner” the discussion in Israel around what is called the money paid to Palestinian prisoners and deceased.
“Freidman is known for his stances in favor of the occupation and the settlements,” claimed the statement, “and his disavowal of the Palestinian cause and our legal and just national rights.”
The statement also claimed that “the ambassador’s words add more complexity and more barriers before the peace process and the renewal of negotiations between the Israeli and Palestinian sides.”
The PA failed to mention how its own support for terrorism adds barriers to peace.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry repeated the claim in its statement that President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel last month “is the reason for the delay in the American efforts to renew the negotiations and they are the ones who have brought an absence of hope to achieve peace and made the conflict a whirlpool of tension and instability.”
Contrary to the PA’s claim, it is actually PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s government that refuses to negotiate with Israel.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Hamas condemned the comments of UN Middle East envoy Nickolai Mladenov, who called the attack that killed Shevach terrorism.
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