PLO official accuses the US of waging a “calculated incitement campaign,” claiming that stopping payments to terrorists constitutes “an open call to physically eliminate” Abbas
Headline: "Erekat: The American administration and Israel are waging an incitement campaign against our people and its leadership"
"PLO Executive Committee Secretary, [Fatah Central Committee member, and PLO Chief Negotiator] Saeb Erekat condemned the calculated incitement campaign that the American administration and Israel – the occupying authority – are waging against our people and its leadership…
He added: ‘The direct and personal attack against [PA] President [Mahmoud Abbas] and the incitement against him by [Israeli Minister of Defense Avigdor] Liberman due to the payment of the salaries (rawatib) of the families of the Palestinian prisoners and Martyrs (Shahids) constitutes incitement against the Palestinian national movement and an open call to physically eliminate the president.’
He noted that Palestine is paying the monetary price of the occupation and the price of it shirking its responsibility and obligation as the power holding [the prisoners] according to international law. He mentioned that articles 81 and 98 of the Fourth Geneva Convention obligate the occupying power to pay allowances (mukhassasat) to the prisoners, as that is part of its responsibility towards them, and to support the families they support if they do not have sufficient means to live on (sic., these articles refer to the rights of protected persons and internees, not those imprisoned for criminal acts –Ed.).
Erekat emphasized that the Palestinian people's struggle against the colonialist occupier is a historical and legal right of all peoples subjected to occupation, and emphasized that the Palestinian leadership will not abandon the prisoners, as this is a legal and moral obligation."
"PLO Executive Committee Secretary, [Fatah Central Committee member, and PLO Chief Negotiator] Saeb Erekat condemned the calculated incitement campaign that the American administration and Israel – the occupying authority – are waging against our people and its leadership…
He added: ‘The direct and personal attack against [PA] President [Mahmoud Abbas] and the incitement against him by [Israeli Minister of Defense Avigdor] Liberman due to the payment of the salaries (rawatib) of the families of the Palestinian prisoners and Martyrs (Shahids) constitutes incitement against the Palestinian national movement and an open call to physically eliminate the president.’
He noted that Palestine is paying the monetary price of the occupation and the price of it shirking its responsibility and obligation as the power holding [the prisoners] according to international law. He mentioned that articles 81 and 98 of the Fourth Geneva Convention obligate the occupying power to pay allowances (mukhassasat) to the prisoners, as that is part of its responsibility towards them, and to support the families they support if they do not have sufficient means to live on (sic., these articles refer to the rights of protected persons and internees, not those imprisoned for criminal acts –Ed.).
Erekat emphasized that the Palestinian people's struggle against the colonialist occupier is a historical and legal right of all peoples subjected to occupation, and emphasized that the Palestinian leadership will not abandon the prisoners, as this is a legal and moral obligation."