The PFLP calls for "a comprehensive popular day of escalation"
Headline: “The Popular Front [for the Liberation of Palestine] calls for a comprehensive day of escalation on Friday”
“The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) called on the masses of our people in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Interior (i.e., Palestinian term for Israel) to hold a comprehensive popular day of escalation tomorrow afternoon, Friday, May 21, 2021, throughout the occupied land in order to emphasize our people’s unity, its national identity, and its adherence to resistance as an option and path of action until the liberation of the entire Palestinian land (the PFLP’s call came during ongoing violent Arab riots; see note below -Ed.).
The PFLP demanded that the masses of our people throughout Palestine come to the areas of friction and confrontation with the occupation and the settler herds in order to rein in their wild behavior and add additional momentum to the popular intifada that has been taking place in the entire homeland for more than a month, as a sign of rejecting the enemy’s crimes, its plans of Judaization against Jerusalem, and its worsening crimes in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip…
The PFLP condemned the statements of German Minister of Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas regarding the Zionist aggression against the Gaza Strip, in which he declared Germany’s adherence to the security of the [Zionist] entity and its right to defend itself…
The PFLP called on the masses of our people in Ramallah to prevent the German minister from entering Ramallah and to remove him, and considered him an enemy of our people and a partner of the occupation in its ongoing crimes against our people.
At the end of the statement, the PFLP saluted the masses of our people who are standing against a barbaric war of annihilation in the Gaza Strip and standing against the terrorist plan of expulsion in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Interior.”
Fatah/Hamas Riot and Rocket War 2021 – On April 30, 2021, facing certain electoral defeat, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas cancelled the first PA elections scheduled in 15 years. Hamas, which expected to win the elections, denounced it as a “coup.” In need of a conflict to divert public discontent, Abbas artificially generated a crisis over Jerusalem. His Fatah party called for "raising the level of confrontation,” and Abbas' spokesman told Palestinians "the battle of all battles is here.” Jerusalem Arabs responded by attacking Jews with rocks and Molotov cocktails. Hamas, Abbas' political rival, could not allow Abbas to lead the battle, so on May 10, 2021, Hamas launched rocket barrages targeting Israeli population centers including Jerusalem. Over the next 11 days, Hamas and Islamic Jihad fired over 4,300 rockets into southern and central Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing 9 Israelis and 3 foreign nationals, and wounding hundreds. In response, Israel launched Operation Guardian of the Walls to target Hamas terror leaders and terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. Already in mid-April, a planned eviction of some Palestinian families illegally living in Jewish-owned buildings in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem had led to clashes between Palestinian residents and Israeli police. This dispute provided Palestinians with a pretext for violent rioting. Adding to the crisis, Israeli Arabs started rioting throughout Israel, especially in cities with a mixed Jewish and Arab population. Two Jews were murdered and many were wounded. According to Walla, an independent Israeli news site, 10 synagogues were wholly or partly burned down; fires were set in 112 Jewish homes and 1 Arab home mistaken for a Jewish home; 386 Jewish homes were plundered and 673 were damaged; 849 cars were set ablaze; and there were 5,018 rock-throwing attacks. In response, Jews started attacking Arabs and their properties as well, but on a much smaller scale. No mosques were burned; 13 Arab homes were damaged; 13 Arab-owned cars were burned; and there were 41 rock-throwing attacks by Jews. [Walla, May 16, 2021] The fighting between Israel and Hamas ended with a ceasefire on May 21, 2021.