JERUSALEM (JTA) — A small group on the extreme fringe of Israel’s settlement movement has put up posters across the West Bank calling for the assassination of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Put up shortly after a shooting attack near the Ofra settlement in which seven Israelis, including a pregnant newlywed, were wounded, the posters featured an appeal to “assassinate the terror funders” and an image of Abbas’ face in a set of crosshairs. According to The Times of Israel, police are considering removing the posters, which likely violate Israel’s strict laws banning incitement to violence.
The Palestinian Authority blamed Israel for the posters.
The P.A. official news agency, Wafa, reported that Palestine’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, was planning to submit a protest note to the Security Council “over Israeli settlers’ threats to assassinate Abbas in addition to recent intrusion into the Dome of the Rock and raids into official institutions.” Israeli army forces recently raided Wafa’s Ramallah offices.
On Wednesday, Israeli police arrested four teenagers accused of carrying out anti-Arab “price-tag” attacks in the Galilee in which they allegedly vandalized property and spray-painted graffiti calling for “revenge” for the Ofra shooting.
