PLO issues revised English version of Abbas' 'execution' speech

The modified English version was released by the PLO's Negotiations Affairs Department, which said this was a "full translation" of Abbas' speech.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Updated: OCTOBER 15, 2015 16:09
Abbas: 'Israeli government executing our sons in cold blood'
The Palestine Liberation Organization on Thursday released a different version of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ speech, which was broadcast on Palestine TV on Wednesday night.
The new English version quotes Abbas as talking about the “shooting of our children in cold blood as they did with the child Ahmed Manasrah and other children from Jerusalem.”
Video of Palestinian stabber proves Abbas" "execution" victim still alive
The modified English version was released by the PLO’s Negotiations Affairs Department, which said this was a “full translation” of Abbas’s speech.
However, the Arabic version of Abbas’s speech does not talk about “shooting.” Instead, Abbas is quoted as talking about the “execution of our children in cold blood, as they did with the boy Ahmed Manasrah and other children in Jerusalem and other places.”
PLO officials did not offer any explanation as to why they chose to change Abbas’s statement about Manasrah.
The English “translation” was published in response to accusations made by Israel against Abbas following his speech.
Israel accused Abbas of lying and incitement, especially with regards to his claim that Manasra, who took part in the stabbing attack at Pisgat Ze’ev in Jerusalem last Monday, had been “executed.”
A senior PA official in Ramallah accused the Israeli government of incitement against Abbas.
A statement released by Abbas’s office did not refer to the case of Manasrah. However, the statement called for an “end to Israeli incitement” – a reference to Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked’s call for closing Palestine TV.
“We call on the Israeli government to work towards ending all what aggravates violence and incitement,” the statement said.
Mahmoud Khalifa, PA Deputy Minister of Information, accused the Israeli media of serving as a mouthpiece for the Israeli government’s propaganda machine. He claimed that Israeli journalists were “reserve soldiers” in the IDF who were promoting their government’s version regarding “field executions” of Palestinians.