Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas promotes terrorism and can therefore play no role in governing Gaza after the war against Hamas, Israeli Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Eli Cohen told JNS on Friday.
“It’s time for the hypocrite Abu Mazen [Abbas] to stop paying salaries to murderers of Jews and to end the incitement in his education system. The Palestinian Authority, which encourages terrorism, is part of the problem and cannot be the solution for Gaza the day after,” said Cohen, who served as foreign minister during the first half of the war that began on Oct. 7, 2023.
Cohen is scheduled to address the inaugural JNS International Policy Summit at Jerusalem’s Waldorff Astoria hotel on Monday afternoon.
Knesset member Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionism) criticized the P.A. on Sunday, calling it a terrorist organization that operates no differently from Hamas.
“I try not to be too involved in the affairs of the terrorist organization that people mistakenly call the Palestinian Authority and how it conducts its business,” Rothman told JNS at the JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem. “They support terror, they teach children to murder Jews, and they are as committed to the destruction of Israel as Hamas—and we see this in every action they take.”
Rothman said recent changes in Palestinian Authority leadership are meaningless.
“The fact that they appointed a new deputy prime minister or deputy president does not really matter,” he said. “Thank God, we are seeing that the United States has understood that UNRWA is not a humanitarian organization but rather a terrorist organization, and I hope more and more people will realize that the Palestinian Authority is the same—a terror organization. They wear suits, but they are just as much terrorists as Hamas.”
Israeli Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Amichai Chikli told JNS on Thursday that Abbas “cannot claim to be any different from Hamas” as long as he rewards terrorists for their attacks, after the P.A. boss called the Islamist terrorist group “sons of dogs.”
“Abu Mazen is one of the world’s leading Holocaust deniers, a vile antisemite, and a sworn enemy of the State of Israel,” Chikli said.
In rare televised remarks broadcast from Ramallah on Wednesday, Abbas had called on Hamas to “end its control over Gaza, hand over all its affairs to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the legitimate Palestinian National Authority, refrain from carrying arms, transform into a political party that operates according to the laws of the Palestinian state and adheres to international legitimacy.”
Abbas accused the rival terrorist group of “inflicting severe damage to the Palestinian cause” since it took control of the Strip in a 2007 coup.
“The first priority is to stop the war of extermination in the Gaza Strip,” declared the octogenarian P.A. chairman, Abbas added. “This must be stopped—hundreds are being killed every day. Why don’t you hand over the American hostages? Sons of dogs, release those you are holding and put an end to this story. Shut down their [Israel’s] excuses. End this!”
It was not clear whether Abbas, who has yet to publicly condemn Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, killings and hostage-takings, called for the release of all 59 remaining captives, or only Americans.
Members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a “military” arm of Abbas’s Fatah movement, participated in the Oct. 7 attacks, and the P.A. has financially rewarded Oct. 7 terrorists through its “pay-for-slay” fund.
Egypt and China-brokered reconciliation talks between Fatah and Hamas have apparently broken down since the latter terrorist group announced the signing of a deal in July.
Meanwhile, the Palestine Liberation Organization on Saturday announced the appointment of Hussein al-Sheikh as the P.A.’s first-ever vice president.
Al-Sheikh currently serves as secretary-general of the PLO Executive Committee, and his elevation positions him as a possible successor to the 89-year-old Abbas.