PA Daily justifies Palestinian stabbing attack saying Israeli "crimes… cause young Palestinians to defend themselves, the people, and the national rights"
Excerpt of a column by Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul, regular columnist for the official PA daily
Headline: “A crime in broad daylight”
“International law guarantees the right of all the oppressed peoples who are bending under the yoke of colonialism to resist and defend the rights and national interests until they achieve freedom, independence, and sovereignty over their national land. In addition, UN Resolution 3236, which was issued on Nov. 22, 1974, guarantees the Palestinian people’s right to use all forms of struggle to achieve its national goals (sic., see note below)…
Israel’s crimes are not summed up by the premeditated murder of women, children, elderly, and young in the [city] squares, not by the arrests, not by the destruction and burning of lands and the cutting of fruit trees and particularly olive trees, not by threatening the security and wellbeing of civilians and the Christian and Islamic places of worship, not by the invasions of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and not by the excavations underneath it in order to destroy it (sic., Israel does not excavate under the Temple Mount); the acts of Judaization and expropriation and the announcements on building thousands and tens of thousands of housing units in the settlements are intensifying, and this is in addition to the daily acts of ethnic cleansing throughout Palestine, and especially in the capital Jerusalem…
The governments of the Zionist project state throughout history oppose the option of peace in principle, and insist on continuing their war crimes against the defenseless Palestinian people,which causes young Palestinians to defend themselves, the people, and the national rights…
In the aforementioned context, Muhammad Salima (i.e., terrorist, wounded 1), 22 (sic., 25), stabbed a Zionist settler two days ago, Saturday [Dec. 4, 2021]. He was shot with live ammunition, wounded, and fell to the ground, with six Israeli soldiers around him who could have arrested him and taken the knife from him. But they refused to do that before the eyes of the entire world and executed him in cold blood (sic., Salima repeatedly lunged at the officers who shot him out of fear he was trying to detonate a suicide bomb). We all saw this, because the criminal execution of heroic Martyr Muhammad in the capital Jerusalem was broadcast live.
The new Israeli crime only reflects the contempt of the Israeli government, its death army, and its murderous security forces for international law and conventions.”
Muhammad Shawkat Salima – 25-year-old Palestinian terrorist who stabbed and wounded 1 Israeli civilian near the Damascus Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem on Dec. 4, 2021, and then attempted to stab 2 Israeli border police officers who shot and killed him in self-defense. Security camera footage shows Salima repeatedly lunged at the officers even after being shot, causing them to continue firing out of fear he was trying to detonate a suicide bomb or use another weapon.
UN Resolution 3236 - PA leaders and officials have legitimized Palestinian violence by quoting UN resolution 3236 which "recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to regain its rights by all means." The PA interprets "all means" as including violence against civilians, but has chosen to ignore the continuation of the resolution which states that the use of "all means" should be "in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations..." The UN Charter prohibits targeting civilians, even in war. Chapter 1, Article 1, opens by saying that "international disputes" should be resolved "by peaceful means."
The PA and its leaders misrepresent all of the Temple Mount as an integral part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Therefore, they vilify any presence of Jews on the mount as an "invasion." It should be noted that Jews who visit the Temple Mount only enter some sections of the open areas, and do not enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque or the Dome of the Rock. Israeli police ban Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount because of threats of violence by Palestinians.
Excavations under the Temple Mount - The Israeli daily Haaretz has stated that the excavations do not reach beneath the mosque: "Despite complaints from the Islamic Movement and Palestinian groups, not a single dig penetrates beneath the [Temple] Mount." [Haaretz, May 24, 2016]