Officials linked to the Palestinian Fatah faction declared yesterday that Friday will be the “first day of popular resistance” against Israel, and have called for attacks against Jewish Israelis and the Jewish state:

A statement released by the Brigades, which is Fatah’s military wing, called on all units and sleeper cells to prepare for a confrontation with the Israeli occupation beginning on Friday. The statement further added there will be a “green light” to carry out attacks.

The statement by the Al Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade was followed today by clashes that broke out after Palestinians opened fire on Israeli soldiers protecting some 1,400 worshippers at the Jewish holy site of Joseph’s Tomb. Israeli soldiers returned fire, injuring one of the gunmen and eventually capturing another.

The Palestinian government-linked media outlet Wafa earlier this week published an article blasting the rabbi of “Jewish fanatics” for asserting that Judaism’s ancient Second Temple was built in Jerusalem:

Close to 150 Jewish fanatics led by a rabbi “toured” the yards of al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City Tuesday carrying a map and listening to their rabbi telling them about the Jewish temples that allegedly existed on that mound thousands of years ago, according to witnesses.

Palestinian officials – including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas – have repeatedly and specifically sought to deny the existence of an ancient Jewish temple in Jerusalem, and to vitiate the Jewish connection to Israel’s capital. The position has been widely criticized as incitement, and is difficult to reconcile with public Palestinian pronouncements regarding the PLO’s willingness to make concessions in the interest of a negotiated final settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

[Photo: Tarhos88 / YouTube]