Abbas caught up in Israeli election row over claims meeting comments were misreported
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met two members of the Israeli left-wing Democratic Camp alliance in Ramallah on Tuesday, sparking a row after media reported comments he apparently made about the Israeli prime minister.
The event momentarily put Mr Abbas, 84, who is not often in the news, in the centre of Israel’s political brawl before elections next month.
Israeli Knesset member Issawi Freij and Noa Rothman – the granddaughter of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated in 1995 – met Mr Abbas in the presidential compound to discuss the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It is rare for Israelis to visit Ramallah because they are generally barred from doing so.
Mr Freij and Ms Rothman are members of the recently formed Democratic Camp, an alliance between the left-wing Meretz party, Stav Shafir – a social activist and former member of the Labour Party – and Ehud Barak, a former prime minister now re-entering electoral politics.
It hopes to play a part in unseating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing corruption charges.
During the meeting, Mr Abbas said he had requested meetings several times with Mr Netanyahu, but his Israeli counterpart had refused.
Mr Abbas also expressed hope that the next Israeli government, to be elected in September, will be more open to meeting.
After the event, Ms Rothman criticised Mr Netanyahu on Twitter, saying he was stalling the peace process.
“It is Netanyahu, through his lack of action and ignoring of the Palestinian problem, who is proving again and again that he is not a partner for creating peace for the coming generations,” she tweeted.
On Tuesday, Mr Netanyahu tweeted a story from the Jerusalem Post, which ran the headline: “Abbas expresses hope Netanyahu will be defeated in election”, declaring the piece gave voters another reason to vote for his Likud party.
Ms Rothman’s representative said Mr Abbas had not said this. According to local journalists briefed about the meeting, Mr Abbas did not endorse a party or candidate.
Nonetheless, Mr Netanyahu wrote on Twitter: “Abu Mazen [Mr Abbas] in a meeting with Meretz this evening: ‘I hope that Netanyahu will lose in the elections’. If someone needed another reason to vote for Likud …”
“Fake,” tweeted the Israeli journalist Barak Ravid. “He didn’t say that.”
The United States’ Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt also tweeted the Jerusalem Post story, accompanied by the message: “Disingenuous to suggest negotiations stalled under this admin – there were no negotiations happening! It’s time for the PA to realise their tired arguments won’t achieve peace.”
Relations between the Palestinian leadership and the Trump administration have been icy since the US moved its embassy to Jerusalem in 2017 and soon after cut off aid to Palestinian refugees, among other moves.
Mr Greenblatt’s team is working on a peace plan, an endeavour Mr Abbas has rejected as biased towards Israel.
The plan is not expected to endorse a two-state solution or an end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank along 1967 borders, the long-standing demand of the Palestinian leadership and, until now, United States policy.
Members of the recently formed Democratic Camp met the Palestinian President in Ramallah