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Amid Rising Attacks on Israelis, Palestinian Authority Officials Call for Intifada and Islamic War
Israeli security and emergency responders work at the site of a bomb blast in Tel Aviv, Israel, Aug. 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Moti Milrod
Why did the IDF launch a major offensive into several cities in Judea and Samaria two nights ago?
Perhaps it is because senior members of the Palestinian Authority (PA) have been calling for an all-out intifada there, and terrorists from all Palestinian factions have been actively seeking to carry out attacks in Israeli cities.
The attempted suicide bombing in Tel Aviv last week was just the latest in a series of major attacks that failed at a late stage before their execution.
And PA officials have been at the forefront of the calls for systematic violence.
Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Qadura Fares: “The time has come to express our anger … I ask Almighty Allah to give us inspiration on the correct path and the correct choice, and that we will set out on an intifada against criminal Netanyahu and all his gangs.” [emphasis added]
[PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, Facebook page, July 18, 2024]
The PA-led terror campaign from 2000-2005 that the PA calls an “intifada” left more than 1,100 Israelis murdered, and tens of thousands injured. Calling for “intifada” is calling for a terror war.
In addition, at a conference attended by senior PA officials, including Fares and Fatah Central Committee Deputy Secretary Sabri Saidam, the host made similar inflammatory remarks ahead of August 3, 2024, “the international day to support Gaza and the Palestinian prisoners”:
Conference host: “Allah willing, Aug. 3, [2024] will be a spark for the Palestinian people and this spark will continue consecutively until we will be liberated from the yoke of the occupation. It is not foreign to this people to lead an intifada like this …
The [first] Intifada spread out throughout the homeland. This is a great honor that is to be credited to our entire Palestinian people. In 2002 [sic., 2000] [then Prime Minister] Sharon entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque and then the [second] Intifada broke out and continued. It is not foreign to our people that an intifada like this will set out from Aug. 3.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, July 30, 2024]
These calls for an “intifada” have been coupled with statements by other senior PA officials, such as Mahmoud Abbas’ advisor Mahmoud Al-Habbash, inciting to terrorism throughout Israel — what he calls a “jihad”:
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “Your best Jihad is ribat [i.e., religious conflict over land claimed to be Islamic], and your best ribat is Ashkelon. Where is Ashkelon? Ashkelon is a city in Palestine, and the land of Palestine is a land of ribat and jihad until Judgment Day.
His [Muhammad’s] dear followers came while carrying out Jihad for Allah to Palestine and Greater Syria, and they liberated it from the Byzantine occupation. Saladin liberated it from the Crusader occupation. And today it will be liberated, Allah willing. Palestine will return and be liberated, sooner or later.”
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations, Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, Aug. 9, 2024]
Al-Habbash went a step further, calling for state-sponsored violence against Israel by all Islamic states:
Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “All the Islamic states — large and small, far and near — need to adopt the same position, the same effort to protect Jerusalem, from Judaization and the occupation’s plots to uproot Jerusalem from the Islamic body. This is a great responsibility that President [Abbas] wanted to place before the Arabs and Muslims: O Muslims, you must join hands with your Palestinian brothers to take back Jerusalem with all the energy and power we have and by all means and ways.”
[Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, Aug. 16, 2024]
The call by Abbas’ advisor that Islamic should “take back Jerusalem” using “all means and ways” — and citing examples of violence and terror — is an explicit call for those states to join the current war against Israel. Israel is currently fighting terror from the Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria, Lebanon, Iran, and Yemen, while Turkey and Algeria have threatened to join the fighting. Al-Habbash’s call for additional Muslim states to join the war at this time must not be interpreted as mere rhetoric. It’s a real threat.
Itamar Marcus is Palestinian Media Watch (PMW)’s Founder and Director. Ephraim D. Tepler is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch. A version of this article originally appeared at PMW.
The post Amid Rising Attacks on Israelis, Palestinian Authority Officials Call for Intifada and Islamic War first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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North London Synagogue, Nursery Targeted in Eighth Local Antisemitic Incident in Just Over a Week
Demonstrators against antisemitism in London on Sept. 8, 2025. Photo: Campaign Against Antisemitism
A synagogue and its nursery school in the Golders Green area of north London were targeted in an antisemitic attack on Thursday morning — the eighth such incident locally in just over a week amid a shocking surge of anti-Jewish hate crimes in the area.
The synagogue and Jewish nursery were smeared with excrement in an antisemitic outrage echoing a series of recent incidents targeting the local Jewish community.
“The desecration of another local synagogue and a children’s nursery with excrement is a vile, deliberate, and premeditated act of antisemitism,” Shomrim North West London, a Jewish organization that monitors antisemitism and also serves as a neighborhood watch group, said in a statement.
“This marks the eighth antisemitic incident locally in just over a week, to directly target the local Jewish community,” the statement read. “These repeated attacks have left our community anxious, hurt, and increasingly worried.”
Local law enforcement confirmed they are reviewing CCTV footage and collecting evidence to identify the suspect and bring them to justice.
This latest anti-Jewish hate crime came just days after tens of thousands of people marched through London in a demonstration against antisemitism, amid rising levels of antisemitic incidents across the United Kingdom since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
In just over a week, seven Jewish premises in Barnet, the borough in which Golders Green is located, have been targeted in separate antisemitic incidents.
According to the Metropolitan Police, an investigation has been launched into the targeted attacks, all of which involved the use of bodily fluids.
During the incidents, a substance was smeared on four synagogues and a private residence, while a liquid was thrown at a school and over a car in two other attacks.
As the investigation continues, local police said they believe the same suspect is likely responsible for all seven offenses, which are being treated as religiously motivated criminal damage.
No arrests have been made so far, but law enforcement said it is actively engaging with the local Jewish community to provide reassurance and support.
The Community Security Trust (CST), a nonprofit charity that advises Britain’s Jewish community on security matters, condemned the recent wave of attacks and called on authorities to take immediate action.
“The extreme defilement of several Jewish locations in and around Golders Green is utterly abhorrent and deeply distressing,” CST said in a statement.
“CST is working closely with police and communal partners to support victims and help identify and apprehend the perpetrator,” it continued.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) also denounced the attacks, calling for urgent measures to protect the Jewish community.
“These repeated incidents are leaving British Jews anxious and vulnerable in their own neighborhoods, not to mention disgusted,” CAA said in a statement.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, the United Kingdom has experienced a surge in antisemitic crimes and anti-Israel sentiment.
Last month, CST published a report showing there were 1,521 antisemitic incidents in the UK from January to June of this year. It marks the second-highest total of incidents ever recorded by CST in the first six months of any year, following the first half of 2024 in which 2,019 antisemitic incidents were recorded.
In total last year, CST recorded 3,528 antisemitic incidents for 2024, the country’s second worst year for antisemitism despite being an 18 percent drop from 2023’s record of 4,296.
In previous years, the numbers were significantly lower, with 1,662 incidents in 2022 and 2,261 hate crimes in 2021.
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Germany to Hold Off on Recognizing Palestinian State but Will Back UN Resolution for Two-State Solution
German national flag flutters on top of the Reichstag building, that seats the Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany, March 25, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Lisi Niesner
Germany will support a United Nations resolution for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but does not believe the time has come to recognize a Palestinian state, a government spokesman told Reuters on Thursday.
“Germany will support such a resolution which simply describes the status quo in international law,” the spokesman said, adding that Berlin “has always advocated a two-state solution and is asking for that all the time.”
“The chancellor just mentioned two days ago again that Germany does not see that the time has come for the recognition of the Palestinian state,” the spokesman added.
Britain, France, Canada, Australia, and Belgium have all said they will recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly later this month, although London said it could hold back if Israel were to take steps to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and commit to a long-term peace process.
The United States strongly opposes any move by its European allies to recognize Palestinian independence.
Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the US has told other countries that recognition of a Palestinian state will cause more problems.
Those who see recognition as a largely symbolic gesture point to the negligible presence on the ground and limited influence in the conflict of countries such as China, India, Russia, and many Arab states that have recognized Palestinian independence for decades.
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UN Security Council, With US Support, Condemns Strikes on Qatar
Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani attends an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, at UN headquarters in New York City, US, Sept. 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
The United Nations Security Council on Thursday condemned recent strikes on Qatar’s capital Doha, but did not mention Israel in the statement agreed to by all 15 members, including Israel‘s ally the United States.
Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with the attack on Tuesday, escalating its military action in what the United States described as a unilateral attack that does not advance US and Israeli interests.
The United States traditionally shields its ally Israel at the United Nations. US backing for the Security Council statement, which could only be approved by consensus, reflects President Donald Trump’s unhappiness with the attack ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Council members underscored the importance of de-escalation and expressed their solidarity with Qatar. They underlined their support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar,” read the statement, drafted by Britain and France.
The Doha operation was especially sensitive because Qatar has been hosting and mediating negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire in the Gaza war.
“Council members underscored that releasing the hostages, including those killed by Hamas, and ending the war and suffering in Gaza must remain our top priority,” the Security Council statement read.
The Security Council will meet later on Thursday to discuss the Israeli attack at a meeting due to be attended by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani.