The new Palestinian Authority prime minister warned preachers to stop inciting to violence.
Salam Fayyad, a former finance minister who is well regarded by Israel and the West, met Thursday with 800 clergymen. He told the preachers he would not allow mosques “to be turned into places of incitement and intimidation.”
Fayyad called on the clerics to “present religion as a way of tolerance, not as a cover for bloodshed.”
Israel has long faulted the Palestinian leadership for not doing enough to end incitement. P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas named Fayyad prime minister earlier this month after firing the Cabinet led by Hamas, an Islamist terrorist group. Hamas forces routed forces loyal to Abbas from the Gaza Strip.
At the clerics’ meeting, Abdel Razak Yehiyeh, the interior minister, repeated Abbas’ pledge to disarm militias.
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