Abbas to Harvard students: “I rule out the possibility of violence, and we will not use it. We will not accept violence at all”

Al-Ayyam reported that Abbas in a speech to American Harvard students specifically said that he is against violence and “rules out” the use of it. However, this was not part of his televised speech nor of the official PA paper’s report on the speech. The statement against violence might have been part of the original manuscript for the speech which papers often receive in advance of the speech itself. Abbas then apparently decided to skip this part of the speech.

      "[PA President Mahmoud Abbas] said: ‘After the Israeli elections we will have an opinion, and we will not accept the steps that Israel has implemented against us. I rule out the possibility of violence, and we will not use it. We will not accept violence at all, but there are [other] things we can do to achieve our rights, and to protest the denial of our rights.’ The president spoke yesterday [March 23, 2019] at the [PA] presidential headquarters in Ramallah before a delegation of approximately 180 students from Harvard University… and said: ‘We want to achieve our rights and our state peacefully, in other words through negotiation, and we will not choose a path other than negotiations to achieve our right. We always say that we will extend our hand to the Israeli government that will be elected.’"
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