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WATCH: PA’s Mahmoud Abbas turns 90

Abbas, born on Nov. 15, 1935, in the northern Israeli city of Safed, has led the Palestinian Authority since 2005.

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas attends a meeting in the Samaria city of Ramallah, March 10, 2019. Photo by Hadas Parush/Flash90.

Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas, now in the 21st year of what was originally a four-year term, celebrated his 90th birthday over the weekend.

Abbas, born on Nov. 15, 1935, in the northern Israeli city of Safed, has led the P.A.—which exercises limited self-government in parts of Judea and Samaria—since 2005, following the election held after Palestine Liberation Organization founder Yasser Arafat’s death.

On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned French President Emmanuel Macron for embracing Abbas as a “prince of peace” following their meeting in Paris.

“Abbas, who was feted right now in Paris, pays terrorists to kill Jews,” Netanyahu said. “The more Jews they kill, the more they get paid.”

Netanyahu added that during Abbas’s tenure, Ramallah has named public squares after terrorists and used school textbooks that call for the destruction of the Jewish state.

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