Did Abbas call to “escalate” deadly terror against Israelis?

• Abbas urges terror: “It is important to escalate the peaceful popular resistance to defend our people and our land”

When 14 Israelis had been murdered in what was later to be known as the “Knife Intifada” - a Palestinian terror wave in which 40 people were murdered – Palestinian Media Watch exposed that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas defined this deadly Palestinian terror as “Peaceful popular uprising”: 

Now Abbas is urging Palestinians to “escalate the peaceful popular resistance.” In other words - or rather, in his own words - he is calling for more deadly terror:

“The [PA] president [Mahmoud Abbas] expressed his appreciation for the heroes of the popular resistance over their activities, over the achievements that they have recorded in their struggle against the Israeli occupation authorities, and over their success in clearing a number of colonialist outposts. He emphasized that it is important to escalate the peaceful popular resistance to defend our people and our land.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 7, 2023]

PMW has documented that Abbas’ Fatah is doing all it can to profile itself as the movement leading terror against Israel. Fatah bragged that by April this year it had led 2,750 terror attacks as opposed to other terror organizations like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which they claimed were doing nothing.

Since Abbas’ call to “escalate,” there has been a steady stream of Palestinian terror in which 4 Israelis have been murdered including 3 in the last few days. 

The following is a longer excerpt of Abbas’ statement:

Headline: “The [PA] president emphasizes that it is important to escalate the peaceful popular resistance in order to defend our people and our land”

“[PA] President [Mahmoud Abbas] received the annual report of the [PA-controlled] Committee to Resist Settlements and the Wall for 2022. This was while he received Director of the Committee to Resist Settlements and the Wall Minister Muayyad Sha’ban…

The president expressed his appreciation for the heroes of the popular resistance over their activities, over the achievements that they have recorded in their struggle against the Israeli occupation authorities, and over their success in clearing a number of colonialist outposts. He emphasized that it is important to escalate the peaceful popular resistance (i.e., Palestinian term that also refers to the use of violence and terror) to defend our people and our land.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 7, 2023]

The terms "peaceful uprising/resistance,” and “popular uprising/resistance" are used by PA leaders at times to refer to peaceful protest and at times to refer to deadly terror attacks and terror waves. For example, ‎Mahmoud Abbas defined as “peaceful popular” the murderous terror during the 2015-2016 ‎terror wave (“The Knife Intifada”), in which 40 people were killed (36 Israelis, 1 Palestinian, 2 Americans and 1 Eritrean) and hundreds wounded in stabbings, shootings, and car ramming attacks. Abbas said: "We want peaceful popular uprising, and that’s what this is." At the time Abbas said this, 14 Israelis had already been murdered.