Hamas called for Palestinians to “confront” Israel’s President Isaac Herzog on Sunday when he comes to the West Bank city of Hebron to light candles for the first night of Hanukkah. At the same time, left-wing Israeli organizations called for a demonstration in the city against the president’s decision to light candles at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the city, a site that is holy to both Jews and Arabs and home to both a synagogue and a mosque.
“We call on the masses of our people in the West Bank and our people in the city of Hebron to confront this provocative step and to confront the attack on the Ibrahimi Mosque,” Hamas said in a statement, which added that “the occupation bears full responsibility for the repercussions of this attack.”
The left-wing organizations, including Peace Now, Breaking the Silence, Crime Minister and Mothers Against Violence, accused Herzog, whose political roots lie with the left and who once headed the Labor Party, of kowtowing to the right and of “legitimiz(ing) the apartheid regime and non-stop violence by settlers under which the Palestinian residents of the city live.”