UNITED NATIONS — The Palestinian envoy to the United Nations on Monday refused to condemn the butchering of an Israeli family by a Palestinian terrorist last week, telling reporters “do not expect all Palestinians to be angels.”
The astonishing comments came in the wake of a terror attack Friday in which 19-year-old Omar al-Abed stabbed four people, killing three at a Shabbat dinner Friday in the West Bank settlement of Halamish.
Abed, who told police he was attacking in retaliation to Israel’s new security measures on the Temple Mount, broke into the home of the Saloman family on Friday night while ten people were enjoying a Sabbath dinner. The terrorist killed Yosef, 70 and two of his children – Elad, 36 and Chaya, 46. Yosef’s wife Tova, 68, was also stabbed, but is recovering.
In an appearance outside the Security Council Monday, Palestinian Ambassador to the U.N. Riyad Mansour said “the biggest violence and terrorism is occupation,” a reference to what Palestinians claim is the occupation of lands by Israel.
When you have an occupation that is as ruthless as we see it and we see a manifestation of it involving violation of international law and the magnitude of war crimes such as settlements, then don’t expect all Palestinians to be angels not to react to it, even some might take the issue in their hand as individuals.
He added that such attacks were “not necessarily the policy” of the Palestinian leadership, but “we should not lose sight of the huge crime committed against the millions of Palestinians in the occupied territory by the Israeli occupying authority, its military forces and the settlers and settlers’ terrorism and the armed settlers.” He then accused settlers of attacking Palestinians, stealing land and destroying crops.
“If people think that the Palestinian people are going to live [in] that situation without any form of resistance to it, that is not realistic and that is not fair,” he said. Mansour then refused to answer a question about whether Abed was being paid by the Palestinian Authority.
Earlier Monday, Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon said that the attack “is not an isolated incident. It is part of a wave of terror sweeping the free world.” He also preempted Mansour’s remarks, urging the international community not to believe what he called the Palestinians’ “lies” and noted that the Palestinian Authority engages in incitement and continues its policy of paying terrorists and their families.
“Instead of condemning this act of terror and calming the situation and pledging to remove all fanatics from their society, the Palestinians are spreading the most horrible lies. They would like the international community to believe that this unspeakable act of violence is Israel’s fault. Do not believe the phony Palestinian outrage,” Danon said.
He called on the Security Council to urge the Palestinians to stop promoting violence and stop paying terrorists — noting that Abed knows he will be paid more than $3,000 a month by the Palestinian Authority.
“[Abed] was encouraged to kill because he knew it would put him on [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud] Abbas’ guaranteed payroll for the rest of his life,” he said.
He also urged the Security Council to do more than issue “carefully-worded statements.”
“If the Security Council wants to de-escalate this situation they should not believe Palestinian lies. We do not need more carefully worded statements asking for calm,” he said. “The Council must demand real action by Mahmoud Abbas, make him stop his tacit support for terror, force him to end this unbearable wave of violence and make him do so immediately before the lives of more innocent victims are lost.”
Adam Shaw is a Breitbart News politics reporter based in New York. Follow Adam on Twitter: @AdamShawNY
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