U.N. Envoy Condemns Stone-Throwing Attack on PA Prime Minister

The U.N.’s Mideast envoy condemned on Thursday a recent stone-throwing attack allegedly committed by Jewish assailants on a vehicle carrying Palestinian Authority prime minister Rami Hamdallah.

The incident occurred in late December as Hamdallah was driving home from an event in Beit Lechem. Two of his bodyguards were reportedly injured.

“The stoning attack on Palestinian Prime Minister Hamdallah’s convoy … is a very worrying incident,” United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nikolay Mladenov said in a statement. “It is absolutely unacceptable and the perpetrators must be brought to justice. Stones can kill.”

Israeli police, who are investigating the incident, have placed a gag order on the probe.

As Arutz Sheva caustically observed, “While the United Nations condemned last month’s stoning incident, the international body has largely ignored the daily stone-throwing attacks by Palestinian Arabs on Israeli Jews.”

Despite a major decrease in the number of stone-throwing attacks in 2018, there were still between five and six such attacks every day, with 2,057 attacks total. In addition, there were between two and three firebomb attacks every day on average last year, or 893 total.

Last week, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs released statistics that showed a 69 percent increase in Israeli attacks on Palestinians in 2018 compared to 2017.

OCHA reported 265 incidents where Israeli residents of Yehudah and Shomron allegedly targeted Palestinians or their property. In total, 115 Palestinians were injured in those attacks and 7,900 trees and 540 vehicles were destroyed.

Earlier this week, an Israeli defense official was quoted by The Times of Israel warning that far-right residents in Yehudah and Shomron have become increasingly “emboldened” to perpetrate violence against local Palestinian persons and property.