Netanyahu accuses Abbas of violating pledge to calm tensions in Jerusalem

“Abbas must stop the incitement that leads to violence,” Netanyahu says at cabinet meeting, explaining that the PA’s official media had called for a day of rage on Friday.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
Netanyahu accuses Abbas on incitement
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas must halt his anti-Israel propaganda, so that calm can be restored to Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet on Sunday during its weekly meeting.
“Abbas must stop the incitement that leads to violence,” Netanyahu said, explaining that the PA’s official media had called for a day of rage on Friday.
It’s an act, he said that violates the pledge that Abbas made just one day earlier in Amman to take immediate steps to restore calm to Jerusalem.
"On Thursday I met in Amman with King Abdullah and US Secretary of State John Kerry.  We called for the restoration of calm and quiet as well as an end to incitement and violence.  I said there that you can not stop the violence if you do not stop the incitement that leads to violence,” Netanyahu said.
Propaganda by radical Islamists and the PA is one of the roots of the militant passion against Israel, Netanyahu said.
Israel is in the midst of a public relations battle in which it is falsely accused of trying to change the status quo with regard to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Netanyahu added.
He reiterated his position that Israel intends to maintain the status quo in which the al-Aksa Mosque compound on the Temple Mount remains under the control of the Islamic Wakf and only Muslims can pray there while Jews and Christians can visit.
Israel, he said, will do everything it can to protect its citizens from violence, including passage of new legislation.