Netanyahu likened to ISIL leader

The Palestinian Authority chief negotiator has likened Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the notorious leader of the ISIL Takfiri terrorist group.

Speaking on Tuesday, Saeb Erekat said “Netanyahu is trying to disseminate fear of” the ISIL led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, “but Netanyahu forgets that he himself leads the Jewish state.”

“He wants us to call Israel the Jewish state, and supports terrorist settlers who kill, destroy and burn mosques and churches… like Baghdadi’s men kill and terrorize,” Erekat said.

Erekat’s comments came after the Israeli prime minister compared the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas to the ISIL.

Addressing the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, Netanyahu compared Israel’s battle against Hamas to that of the US-led campaign against the ISIL militants in Iraq and Syria.

Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee, has also released a statement, calling Netanyahu’s address misleading.

She said that the Israeli premier manipulated facts when he compared Hamas with the ISIL terrorist group.

“Netanyahu’s speech at the UN was a blatant manipulation of facts and attempted at misleading the audience through a combination of hate language, slander and argument of obfuscation,” Ashrawi said.

HN/MHB/AS