Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas has accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing,” days after Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu made a similar allegation.
The remarks follow Netanyahu’s claim during an address rejecting criticism of Israeli settlement building that the Palestinians were seeking a state with “no Jews”.
Netanyahu called that “ethnic cleansing,” drawing a strong rebuke from the United States.
Speaking yesterday night before the Eid al-Adha Muslim festival, Abbas said the Israelis “don’t want to progress one iota towards peace, in spite of their deceptive allegations.”
“On the contrary, they go deeper with their settlements, infringement of holy places, ethnic cleansing and deliberate killing,” he said, according to official Palestinian news agency WAFA.
In a video address on Monday, Netanyahu said that the Palestinian leadership wanted a state on the basis of “no Jews.”