Israeli right-wing elements threaten senior advisor to Palestinian president
The Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, which calls itself the first and the largest research institute in the Middle East and whose work includes conflict resolution, had a great idea.
In these tense times it would host a public discussion between Dr. Mahmoud al-Habbash, a senior Palestinian official who also serves as the Supreme Judge in the Palestinian Authority sharia courts, and a centrist Israeli parliamentarian, Ofer Shelah.
But we all know where good intentions lead.
An hour before the event, a press release went out. “In light of new developments, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Truman Institute for Peace has been forced to cancel the public meeting today between Dr. Mahmoud al-Habbash, a senior aide to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, and Israeli Member of Knesset Ofer Shelah.”
The reason, according to the Hebrew University, was “notification from Palestinian Authority officials that their highest security echelons had received information about threats to Dr. al-Habbash’s life,” resulting in their prohibiting him from attending the meeting, which was supposed to touch on topics including the stalled peace process and the volatile security situation.
Speaking with The Media Line, Truman Institute Director Prof. Menachem Blondheim, conceded that he too had been at the receiving end of “negative comments and threats” emanating from right-wing Israeli elements during the past week, but that the Truman Institute “is willing to absorb criticism but will not cancel events we believe should take place.”
A right-wing Israeli news site, Arutz Sheva [1], jubilantly posted the headline, “Terror-glorifying PA minister cancels appearance at Hebrew U.”
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It continued, “Mahmoud al-Habbash, notorious for glorifying terror, calling all of Israel ‘Muslim land’, cancels Hebrew University appearance.”
On Monday, at an event held at Bar-Ilan University on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, Ze’ev Elkin, Israel’s hard-right Minister of Immigration Absorption and a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party asserted that the days of the Palestinian Authority, as well as the Oslo Accords, were numbered.
“There’s no point in continuing this artificial resuscitation of the PA, and we should prepare a proper tombstone for the grave, as well as for the Oslo Accords. The PA was born with Mahmoud Abbas, who initiated and pushed Oslo, and the PA will disappear with Abbas when he goes,” Elkin said.
He warned that Israel should prepare itself for the eventuality of the PA’s collapse, which he appeared to anticipate somewhat triumphantly, saying “we must stop these fruitless discussions which debate whether or not it will be good for Israel. The PA will collapse whether we want it to or not – the train has already left the station. I’m sorry to say that at the moment, it seems that we have yet to internalize the new situation, and we aren’t preparing for it properly.”
The official position of the Israeli government, as of the United States and Europe, is in favor of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority aiming at an equitable two-state solution.
Netanyahu’s office was forced to issue a clarification following Elkin’s comments.
A source close to the Prime Minister told the Israeli free tabloid Israel Hayom that “we have an interest in the Palestinian Authority not collapsing. On the ground, we are taking a number of economic and security steps to prevent this [a collapse of the Palestinian Authority], but we are preparing for all possibilities.”
The cancellation of the Hebrew University event occurred only when the Palestinian Authority declared that “they were not willing to allow him to attend,” Blondheim said.
“We regret that dialogue was once again prevented,” he said in a statement, “and that we who are engaged in the important work of advancing peace were not able to continue and carry out this important mandate.”
Neither the Palestinian Authority nor the Hebrew University would specify who had issued the threats.
Six Palestinian officials contacted by The Media Line refused to comment on the cancellation, but the official Palestinian news agency, WAFA, issued a statement in Arabic asserting that “in light of extreme right wing incitement both within and without the university campus, al-Habbash decided to call off his participation.”