Ignoring Biden call to condemn attacks, Abbas slams all forms of violence
A day after ignoring a call from US Vice President Joe Biden to explicitly condemn the ongoing spate of attacks on Israelis, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday announced he opposed all forms of violence.
“Our hand is outstretched in peace founded on justice and respect for the rights of everyone,” Abbas said at joint press conference in Ramallah with visiting Romanian President Klaus Iohannis.
“We are against violence, extremism and terrorism, wherever it comes from,” he said.
Twenty nine Israelis and four foreign nationals have been killed in an ongoing wave of Palestinian stabbing, car-ramming and shooting attacks since October. The latest victim was American student Taylor Force, stabbed to death on Tuesday as Biden met nearby with former president Shimon Peres. An estimated 180 Palestinians have died in the same period, more than two thirds of them in the course of attacking Israelis, and the rest in clashes with Israeli troops, according to the Israeli army.
Abbas expressed his condolences over the killing of the American tourist in Tel Aviv, but failed to condemn the attack itself and even added that “the occupation forces [of Israel] killed 200 Palestinians in the past five months.”
http://www.timesofisrael.com/ignoring-biden-call-to-condemn-attacks-abbas-slams-all-forms-of-violence/
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