Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas threatened this week that "million of fighters" would swarm Jerusalem and topple the Jewish state's capital city, warning that "no matter how many houses and how many settlements they declare that they [plan to build] here and there—they shall all be destroyed."
Abbas, in an Arabic language speech at Jalazone Refugee Camp near Ramallah that was heavy with threats of destruction, doubled down on the Palestinian government's policy of using public money to pay convicted terrorists and their families, telling his audience, "We will not accept their designation of our martyrs as terrorists. Our martyrs are the martyrs of the homeland."
Abbas went on to rally those in attendance to swarm the city of Jerusalem and destroy all Jewish people living there. His remarks are the clearest sign to date that the leader has no interest in playing a role in a revamped peace process spearheaded by President Donald Trump's White House.
"To Jerusalem we march, martyrs by the millions!" he was quoted as saying, according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI, a media watchdog site.
"We shall enter Jerusalem—millions of fighters! We shall enter it! All of us, the entire Palestinian people, the entire Arab nation, the Islamic nation, and the Christian nation," Abbas said. "They shall all enter Jerusalem."
Homes and cities built by Jews and other ethnic groups living in Israel "will all go to the garbage bin of history," Abbas said.
"We shall remain [here], and nobody can remove us from our homeland," the leader continued. "If they want, they themselves can leave. Those who are foreign to this land have no right to it. So we say to them: Every stone you have [used] to build on our land, and every house you have built on our land, is bound to be destroyed, Allah willing."
Pivoting to the payments for convicted terrorists, a policy known as pay to slay, Abbas said the payments will never cease, despite increasing international pressure from the West.
"We will not accept their designation of our martyrs as terrorists," Abbas said. "Our martyrs are the martyrs of the homeland. We will not allow them to deduct a single penny from their money. All the money will go back to them, because the martyrs, the wounded, and the prisoners are the most sacred things we have."