PM: Abbas should condemn Itamar attack in PA media

Following PA president's condemnation of terror attack on Israel Radio, Netanyahu says he should speak to Palestinians to stop incitement.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Netanyahu 311 reuters (photo credit: Reuters)
Netanyahu 311 reuters
(photo credit: Reuters)
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday said that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's earlier condemnation of the Itamar terror attack on Israel Radio was important, but that he would have preferred the condemnation be made in the Palestinian media.
Netanyahu stated at a meeting of the Likud faction that a Palestinian minister had said that the Itamar attack may have been carried out by settlers or the Israeli government in order to avoid moving forward with the peace process. He added that more people in the Palestinian Authority were saying such things; therefore, Abbas should speak clearly to his people to stop the incitement.
RELATED:Gov't aggressively goes after Palestinian incitementIDF hunts door-to-door for Fogel family’s killersEarlier on Monday,  Abbas condemned the terror attack in Itamar over the weekend, calling it despicable, immoral and inhuman.
In an interview with Israel Radio, Abbas said that "A human being is not capable of something like that."
"I'm not capable of seeing a four-month-old baby girl murdered, or a woman slaughtered," he said. "Any person who has a sense of humanity would be pained and driven to tears by such sights."
"Had we had advance information, we would have prevented this," Abbas asserted. "Now we want to know who carried it out."
The PA president said he telephoned Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to offer condolences as
well as help from his security force in solving the attack. He added that he agreed to a joint investigation with Netanyahu.
Abbas further stated that a wave of terror attacks is not expected and that he would not allow it.
The PA premier also addressedNetanyahu's accusations that the PA allows incitement against Israel in its mosques and schools, Abbas said that there is no incitement.
Abbas rejected the allegation, saying his Palestinian
Authority was "the only place in the Arab and Muslim world"
where mosques used sermons pre-approved and disseminated by the
government.
The PA president further called for a joint Israeli-Palestinian-American committee to look into claims of incitement in Palestinian schools.