A terrorist considered by some to be an eventual leader for the Palestinians has called for attacks on Israel as being “faithful” to the principles of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The Ma’an News Agency reported that Marwan Barghouti, serving multiple life sentences for terror attacks against Israelis, in a letter encouraged “choosing global and armed resistance.”
Writing on the tenth anniversary of Arafat’s death on Tuesday, Barghouti said that such actions were consistent with Arafat’s “legacy… for which tens of thousands died as martyrs.” Barghouti’s letter comes in the wake of multiple car and stabbing attacks against Israel. Furthermore, Barghouti is one of the most popular persons amongst the Palestinians.
In fact, Ma’an noted that the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society critiqued and mocked the Israeli Prison Service for moving Barghouti to solitary confinement following the letter. The Ma’an article did not report any disapproval from the Prisoner Society of Barghouti’s call to violence.
On Wednesday, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin had to face the effects of Palestinian violence, paying a condolence call to the family of the teenage Israeli killed in last week’s car attack.
“Dear family, we have endured so many hardships during our history, and even today, with sovereignty over Jerusalem, we experience the harassment and terror wrought against innocent people, which exacts a heavy price,” a press release quoted Rivlin as saying.
“All the security forces are doing everything within their power to safeguard the well-being of our citizens, just as in the difficult times of war, and in every situation, we have to make sure that the Jewish state is a state which maintains the law, making it possible to live in.”
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, November 13, 2014)