The Palestinians are not afraid of the new Israeli right-wing government and are ready to confront it, Palestinian officials said on Thursday as Prime Minister-designate Netanyahu presented his cabinet ministers to the Knesset.
The officials also called for stepping up the “popular resistance” against Israel, especially in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Calls for popular resistance
As Netanyahu was addressing the Knesset, hundreds of Palestinians gathered in Ramallah to celebrate the 58th anniversary of the launch of the first attack against Israel by the ruling Fatah faction headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
“The threats of the occupation and its new extreme right-wing government will not frighten us,” PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said at the rally. “We affirm that we will remain steadfast until the Palestinian state is established and until victory.”
Shtayyeh said Fatah will remain “loyal to the martyrs and prisoners, its founders and our people.” He urged Palestinians to pursue the “popular resistance” against Israel.
Deputy Fatah Chairman Mahmoud Aloul said the Palestinians were ready to confront “the most right-wing Zionist government” in Israel.
Aloul argued that the new Israeli government poses a danger to Jerusalem, al-Aqsa Mosque and all Palestinians, as well as Arab Israelis.
He called on all Palestinians to work together “to confront this right-wing fascist government.” Aloul too called for escalating the “popular resistance.”
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said the Palestinians will confront the new Israeli government through “resistance and unity.” He too said the Palestinians were not afraid of “threats’ made by members of the new Israeli government.
Haniyeh predicted that the policies of the Netanyahu government would intensify tensions. The Palestinians, he said, will respond to settlement expansion by “escalating and expanding the resistance and applying pressure by all means available to uproot the settlers and the occupying entity from all of the land of Palestine.”