Netanyahu: Abbas condolence letter to Glick shooter is act of incitement

Foreign minister lashes out at PA president over alleged sympathy letter sent to Israeli-Arab family of Yehuda Glick's suspected shooter.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
Binyamin Netanyahu (photo credit: REUTERS)
Binyamin Netanyahu
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu accused Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas with incitement for allegedly writing a letter of support to the Israeli-Arab family of the man who attempted to assassinate right wing activist Yehuda Glick on Wednesday night.
"When we are trying to calm the situation, Abu Mazen sends condolences over the death of one who tried to perpetrate a reprehensible murder. The time has come for the international community to condemn him for such actions," Netanyahu said.  
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman added, “This shows that Abu Mazen is a partner, a partner for terror, a partner for terrorists, a partner for murders.”
The foreign minister added, “This despicable letter by Abu Mazen openly support terror and encourages further killings.”
Liberman warned that Abbas was helping the Israel-Palestinian conflict disintegrate into the realm of threats and violence.
Similarly, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein wrote on Facebook that "Abbas' outrageous step of comforting the family of the terrorist who tried to murder Yehuda Glick proves the truth of [former foreign minister] Abba Eban's words that the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
"Once again Abbas is doing everything to show that we have no one to talk to. Wild incitement and encouragement to terrorists do not move us forward; rather they make the hatred permanent," Edelstein wrote.
The Jerusalem Post was unable to confirm that Abbas had actually sent a condolence letter to the family of Mu’taz Hijazi, the man from the Abu Tor neighborhood of Jerusalem who is suspected of shooting Glick.
Israeli police killed him on Thursday morning as he resisted arrest.
According to reports, Abbas wrote a letter on November 1, to the Hijazi family in which he said that he received with “anger and condemnation the news of the heinous crime committed by the gangs of killing and terrorism in the Israeli occupation army.”
Declaring Hijazi, who was shot dead by police forces hours after the assassination attempt, as a “martyr.”
Abbas wrote that the killing of Hijzai has been added to the “crimes of the Israeli occupation army against our people since the nakba (in 1948).”
“This act won’t intimidate our people, but would increase its steadfastness in its homeland,” Abbas wrote in his letter to the family.