Is The PA Preparing For A New Intifada?

Is the Palestinian Authority Preparing for a New Intifada?

by Bassam Tawil

• Needless to say, none of the Jews visiting the Temple Mount was involved in violence or any kind of "provocation." The only violence that took place at the holy site came from Palestinians, who attacked the policemen with stones and chairs and hurled insults at the Jewish visitors.
  
  
• By calling the visits "incursions" and "raids," the Palestinians are trying to create the false impression that Jews are violently storming an Islamic holy site. The Arabic word Palestinians use to describe the visits: Iktiham (storm or break in). This rhetoric is meant to imply that the "extremist settlers" are carrying out a violent action against innocent Palestinians and their holy sites, thus signaling the Palestinians to rise to defend themselves and their mosque.
  
  
• In the eyes of Palestinian leaders, Jews are always the "aggressors," while Palestinians are the perpetual "victims"... in the Palestinian lexicon, a Jew peacefully touring the Temple Mount is an "aggressor," while a Palestinian who throws stones and chairs at police officers and abuses the visitors is the real "victim." This is the image Abbas, Hamas and Islamic Jihad are seeking to create in the minds of their people and the rest of the world.
  
  
• The total number of Palestinians killed in Syria since 2011 now stands at 3,989. Where is the outrage from Palestinian leaders in the West Bank and Gaza Strip about that? It is reserved for a Jew peacefully visiting the Temple Mount. For them, such visits are far more important than 250 Palestinian children killed in any Arab country. This sums up the Palestinian leaders' attitude – ruinous disregard for the lives of their own children, and malign intentions for the Jews and their children.
  
  
  
  

The Palestinian Authority (PA) spent the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha this week inciting against Israel because of Jewish visits to the Temple Mount, or Haram al-Sharif in Arabic, in Jerusalem. The site is also sacred to Jews and Christians: it is where the First and Second Temples had stood before being destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BCE and by the Romans in 70 CE. (The Western Wall, or so-called Wailing Wall, sacred to Jews, an ancient retaining wall of the Temple Mount, is all that remains of them.)

Depicting the peaceful visits as "incursions by Jewish settlers and extremists," PA officials and media outlets accused the Israeli government of repeatedly carrying out "provocations and assaults against holy sites in Jerusalem, particularly Al-Aqsa Mosque."

Mahmoud Habbash, religious affairs adviser to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, went as far as describing the Jews visiting the Temple Mount as "terrorists." Habbash, who also serves as Supreme Shari'a Judge, also accused the Jewish visitors of "defiling the Haram al-Sharif and provoking the feelings of Muslims." He further appealed to all Muslims to "defend Al-Aqsa Mosque against Israeli conspiracies and barbaric violations."

Habbash was echoing Abbas's notorious statement that Palestinians won't allow Jews with their "filthy feet" to "defile our Al-Aqsa Mosque."

Abbas's statement came during a meeting with a group of Palestinians from east Jerusalem in his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Abbas even encouraged Palestinians to engage in violence by saying:

"We bless every drop of blood that has been spilled for Jerusalem, which is clean and pure blood, blood spilled for Allah, Allah willing. Every shahid (martyr) will reach Paradise, and everyone wounded will be rewarded by Allah. We will do everything in our power to protect Jerusalem."

Let this be made unquestionably clear: the PA leadership's incitement and the threats by Hamas and Islamic Jihad to step up terror attacks against Israel could trigger another wave of terrorism like the "Knife Intifada."

By describing any Jew who visits the Temple Mount as an "extremist settler," the Palestinian leaders are sending a message to their people that the peaceful Jewish visitors are legitimate targets -- and that it is open season on them.

In the eyes of Palestinian leaders, Jews are always the "aggressors," while Palestinians are the perpetual "victims."

Consider this: in the Palestinian lexicon, a Jew peacefully touring the Temple Mount is an "aggressor," while a Palestinian who throws stones and chairs at police officers and abuses the visitors is the real "victim." This is the image Abbas, Hamas and Islamic Jihad are seeking to create in the minds of their people and the rest of the world.