John Kerry, Benjamin Netanyahu call for end of incitement amid Israeli-Palestinian violence

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Thursday for an immediate end to incitement blamed for a recent deadly wave of Palestinian attacks against Israelis.

Meeting in Berlin as Kerry waded into the volatile mix of spiraling tensions in a bid to de-escalate the situation, the pair condemned the attacks. Kerry called for an end to all incitement and all violence but Netanyahu pointedly repeated earlier direct accusations that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is to blame, saying he is "spreading lies" about Israel and the status of the holy site at the centre of the tensions.

"There is no question this wave of attacks is driven directly by incitement, incitement by Hamas, incitement from the Islamist movement in Israel and incitement, I am sorry to say, from President Abbas and the Palestinian Authority," Netanyahu told Kerry.

"I think it is time for the international community to say clearly to President Abbas to stop spreading lies about Israel," he said. "Lies that Israel wants to change the status quo at the Temple Mount, lies that Israel wants to tear down the Al-Aqsa Mosque, lies that Israel is executing Palestinians. All of that is false."

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Netanyahu said Israel is committed to keeping the status quo at the site, which is known to Jews as the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism and home to the biblical Temples. For Muslims, it is the Noble Sanctuary, home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam and a key national symbol for the Palestinians. The site, captured by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war, is a frequent flashpoint of violence.

The Palestinians accuse Israel of trying to change the longstanding "status quo" at the site, which allows Jews to visit but not to pray. They point to a growing number of Jewish visitors who seek an expanded Jewish presence and prayer rights at the site.

Kerry spoke to Abbas, Jordan's Abdullah

Netanyahu rejected those claims and said ending incitement was the only way to ease tensions.

"To generate hope, we have to stop the terrorism," he said. "To stop the terrorism, we have to stop the incitement and I think it's time the international community told President Abbas to stop the incitement and hold him accountable for his words and his deeds."

Kerry was more circumspect and did not single out Abbas for blame. But he also did not address comments Netanyahu made earlier this week about a former Palestinian leader inspiring Hitler's Holocaust, which many historians dispute and many Palestinians have criticized as incitement.

"We have to stop the incitement, we have to stop the violence," Kerry said, adding that he had spoken to Abbas and Jordan's King Abdullah, who is charged with overseeing the Jerusalem site, in the past day and both assured them of their commitment to calm.

"I believe people want this to de-escalate," he said of Abbas and Abdullah, whom he will meet on Saturday in Amman.

'Beyond the rhetoric'

Kerry added that these conversations would be "very important to settle on the steps that can be taken beyond the condemnation and beyond the rhetoric" to end the violence.

The U.S. has not criticized Netanyahu for incitement but the State Department said Wednesday that Netanyahu's claim that the mufti of Jerusalem during World War II, noted Nazi sympathizer Haj Amin al-Husseini, told Adolf Hitler to exterminate the Jews, was not supported by "scholarly evidence."

Kerry has said he wants clarity about the status quo about the site, but officials say he doesn't believe that needs to be in writing.