Kerry Meets Israeli Leaders in Jerusalem, Condemns Palestinian Terror Wave

Secretary of State John F. Kerry held separate talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders Tuesday in a bid to curb the persistent wave of violence that erupted two months ago.

“Clearly, no people anywhere should live with daily violence”. They carried banners saying “Kerry is not welcome” and “The U.S. must stop its support to organized Israeli terrorism”.

“Israel’s [civilian] penal laws are becoming more and more similar to military laws in the occupied West Bank”, Rafat Sub Laban, advocacy unit coordinator at the Addameer Prisoner Support Network, told Al Jazeera. For most of that time Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was, after all, being punished for boldly speaking his mind about that ill-advised nuclear deal with Iran – a deal near and dear to both Kerry’s heart and that of his boss, President Obama. Kerry also met with President Reuven Rivlin, before heading to Ramallah for a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

There were no signs that Kerry made any headway in easing tensions during his meetings with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

Earlier in the day, one teenage girl was killed and another seriously injured when they attacked an elderly man in Jerusalem, police said, the first stabbing in the city for almost two weeks.

Israeli soldiers stand guard next to Israeli commuters at a bus station where a Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli security forces, near the Gush Etzion block of settlements south of occupied Jerusalem in the West Bank. It said the attacker was shot and wounded at the scene. He last visited Israel and the Palestinian territories during fighting in Gaza three months later.

Palestinians blame the upswing in violence on the near 50-year Israeli occupation of the West Bank, a lack of progress toward a Palestinian state and a growing sense of despair and frustration amongst youth.

Secretary General of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council Amin Maqboul told Xinhua that Kerry’s remarks signal bias of the US administration towards Israel, adding that such statements prove that Washington is not an “impartial” broker. “Israel has every right in the world to defend itself and it has an obligation to defend itself, and it will and it is”, Kerry said to reporters prior to a closed door meeting with Netanyahu.

The Magen David Adom, Israel’s paramedic agency, says that 21 Israelis have been killed within the same period – a figure that also includes an Eritrean asylum seeker killed by a mob who misidentified him as an attacker.

He also called for greater participation of the global community to break the impasse and urged the diplomatic Quartet on the Middle East peace process to continue its efforts to preserve the viability of a Palestinian State and establish conditions for a return to meaningful negotiations.

“This has only further entrenched the occupation and undermined the realization of the two-State solution”, Abbas said.

America’s broader concerns are the same and Kerry nearly surely pressed both sides in private to avoid provocative actions. Israeli fire has killed 89 Palestinians. For the Palestinians, it means ending incitement to violence.

In recent months, Kerry and other US officials had suggested a renewed peace push might be possible.

Abbas on Monday once again accused Israel of aiming to change the status quo on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and that it is carrying out “extrajudicial killings” of Palestinians carrying out terror attacks against Israelis.

Abbas, for his part, has provided no indication that he wants to restart direct peace talks with the Israelis anytime soon.