Report: Abbas called Oct. 7 ‘the greatest day in Palestinian history’

Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas praised the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, calling it “the greatest day in Palestinian history,” Palestinian researcher Hani al-Masri said in a recent interview.

Al-Masri, the director general of Masarat—The Palestinian Center for Policy Research and Strategic Studies—spoke when asked by Palestinian content creator Ahmad Biqawi in a YouTube interview posted on Dec. 11 how Ramallah reacted on the morning of the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.

“This is the ‘authority’ people want the ‘Palestinian Authority’ to be? A terror-worshiping authority,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in an X post on Wednesday, accompanying the relevant clip from the interview. The ministry noted that al-Masri is also a member of the Board of Trustees at the Yasser Arafat Foundation, saying he “knows a thing or two about the P.A.”

Al-Masri also said that the P.A. is continuing terror payments to the families of prisoners and “martyrs,” despite commitments to the European Union and the United States to end its “pay-for-slay” policy.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar highlighted the continuation of the P.A.’s payments policy in an X post on Wednesday, accusing Abbas of once again lying about ending the practice. He added that the P.A. is disguising payments to released murderers as pensions for members of the Palestinian Security Services.

“This is distorted. End ‘pay-for-slay’ now!” Sa’ar wrote.