PA President Abbas in Archival Speech Posted by Fatah on Facebook: We Must Use Any Possible Means to Prevent the Settlers from Defiling Our Holy Places

In a 2014 speech, PA President Mahmoud Abbas says that the settlers "have no right to defile" the holy places, that "we should all be murabitun [fighters stationed on the front line] at the Al-Aqsa Mosque" and that "we must prevent them from entering the Haram, using any possible means." The speech was reposted on Fatah’s official Facebook page on July 15, following the terror attack in the Old City of Jerusalem, under the title: "This Is the Call of Brother President Abu Mazen...". The text accompanying the post read: "We should defend our holy places bare-chested and by any possible means. It is not enough to say that there are settlers at Al-Aqsa. We should drive them out and prevent them from defiling Al-Aqsa by any means."

Following is the transcript of Abbas's speech:

Mahmoud Abbas: It is not enough for us to say that there are murabitun [fighters stationed on the front line]. We should all be murabitun at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. It is not enough for us to say: "The settlers have come." They have come, and they must not enter the Haram compound. Using any possible means, we must prevent them from entering the Haram. This is our Haram compound, this is our Al-Aqsa, and this is our Church [of the Holy Sepulchre], and they have no right to enter them. They have no right to defile them. We must prevent them [from doing so]. We should stand bare-chested facing them, in order to defend our holy places.

An image of the Al-Aqsa Mosque appears on the screen, encircled by a red circle, with the title: "Jerusalem is Arab"