President Mahmoud Abbas said Monday that Israel was seeking chaos as Israeli forces clashed with protesters across the West Bank for the second day.
"The Israelis want chaos ... We will not allow them to drag us into it and to mess with the lives of our children and our youth," Abbas told reporters in his office in Ramallah.
The death of 30-year-old Arafat Jaradat in Israeli custody on Saturday has sparked mass protests across the West Bank and Gaza. An autopsy revealed Jaradat died of extreme torture, Palestinian officials said Sunday.
"We lost Arafat Jaradat who was arrested and came back in a coffin and this cannot pass lightly," Abbas said. "We will not allow them to keep our prisoners in jails all their lives for crimes they didn't commit."
Abbas continued: "We are asking for peace which is built on justice and stopping settlements because we are a state under occupation and according to the Fourth Geneva Convention, Israel shouldn’t change the nature of the land which it’s occupying and transfer people to it."
Peace means an independent Palestinian state on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, the president added.
"We will not accept less than international legitimacy and we tell all states of the world including the US and the Quartet that we are seeking peace."
Front Page Features