PA claims that Israel, Hamas planning to assassinate Abbas

(Palestinian Media Watch via JNS)—Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas’s adviser on religious affairs has accused Israel and Hamas of planning “an attack against Abbas.”

Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “There is suspicious and dangerous coordination between the statements of the occupation state’s leaders and the statements of the Hamas movement’s leaders on all that is connected to an attack on President Mahmoud Abbas.” [Official P.A. daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 14, 2019]

Al-Habbash claimed Israel and Hamas share a desire to “assassinate” Abbas. He alleged that Israeli cabinet members have talked about “ways of getting rid of” Abbas, and said this was done in parallel with Hamas urging foreign parliaments to revoke Abbas’s legitimacy as president:

“[Al-Habbash] emphasized that this coordination of statements [between Israel and Hamas] and the attack on the Palestinian leadership headed by the president is not coincidental, because both Israel and Hamas incite against the president morning and night, challenge his legitimacy and want to assassinate him.”

The “attacks” against Abbas refer to remarks by Israeli Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan, who suggested barring Abbas from returning to the Palestinian territories the next time he travels abroad, and to a campaign by an Israeli private right-wing organization that on posters with Abbas’s face seen through a rifle sight has called on the Israeli government to “eliminate those who fund murder!”

Fatah’s Revolutionary Council Secretary Majed Al-Fatiani claimed this campaign is coming from the Israeli government:

“If not for the political cover from the highest echelons in the settler government, they would not be threatening the president through posters that they have glued to the occupation army’s checkpoints. This is direct incitement by the occupation government, exactly like they incited against President martyr leader Yasser Arafat before and during the siege on him.”

[Official P.A. daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 14, 2018]

Abbas himself reacted to the alleged “attacks” against him and compared his situation to that of former P.A. leader Arafat, repeating the P.A. libel that Israel poisoned and killed him.

Abbas: “They can kill me in my home with bullets or with a missile at any given moment. They can also kill me with poison, as they poisoned the late President Yasser Arafat (sic., scientific teams have debunked this conspiracy; see note below) and killed [Palestine Liberation] Organization leaders in the past, but I will not surrender. Life is in Allah’s hands, and even if they kill me, it will not solve their problems.” [Official P.A. daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 15, 2019]