Amb. Friedman
Amb. FriedmanFlash 90

Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization and chief Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat launched into an unprecedented personal attack on two senior American diplomats Sunday, including America’s Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, accusing them of promoting “racist colonial” interests.

In a series of tweets Sunday following the unveiling of an ancient road used by pilgrims during the Second Temple period to bring sacrifices to the Temple in Jerusalem, Erekat said Friedman was “not a US ambassador”, but rather, “an extremist Israeli settler”.

Erekat also accused senior White House envoy Jason Greenblatt of working with Friedman to promote “prosperity” for Israeli “settlers”.

“Greenblatt and Friedman are advancing prosperity for the settlers, for a racist colonial settlement enterprise. Today they’ll once again insult international law by blessing a project of settlers that has dispossessed dozens of Palestinian families nearby Al Aqsa Mosque compound,” Erekat tweeted.

“I hope all the world, including Americans can see this. That is not a U S Ambassador, that is an extremist Israeli settler, with Greenblatt, also there, digging underneath Silwan a Palestinian town,” Erekat continued, referring to the unveiling of the 2,000-year-old Pilgrims’ Road which linked the historic City of David to the Temple Mount.

“We should show this to all who participated in Manama,” Erekat added, referring to the recent economic workshop in the Bahrain capital city, pushed by the Trump administration to promote the economic side of its Middle East peace plan.

“Can we hope for world leaders, including Arab leaders, to call president Trump and explain the real threat on the security of the region, and also condemn this behavior of Friedman? And issue a communique afterwards,” Erekat said in a follow up tweet.