Five Requirements Abbas Must Meet to Demonstrate His Commitment to Peace

Vol. 24, No. 22

• While Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is quick to express his commitment to peace, his actions tell a different story entirely. If Abbas genuinely seeks to promote peace, there are five specific actions must take:

• Unequivocally condemn the Oct. 7 massacre – While it seems unfathomable to decent people, Abbas, the PLO and the PA (both headed by Abbas) has never condemned the massacre. Abbas’ Fatah even bragged about participating in the massacre.

• Abolish the PLO/PA pay-for-play policy – Every year the PLO/PA pays hundreds of millions of dollars to promote, incentivize and reward terror. Abbas, the PLO, and the PA continued rewarding terrorists even after Congress passed the Taylor Force Act. While the policy is universally condemned, Abbas refuses to abolish the policy, preferring to repeatedly declare that even if the PA has one last penny in its coffers, it would be paid first to the terrorists.

• Stop all delegitimization of Israel and incitement to violence and dehumanization of Jews and Israelis – In order to fuel the flames of hatred, Abbas, the PLO and the PA, have turned rabid anti-Israel propaganda, incitement to violence and terror, and antisemitism into daily events. No Palestinian leader can claim to seek to promote peace, while simultaneously sustaining and supporting mechanisms that generate hate.

• Agree to the resettlement of the “Palestinian refugees” – Abbas and the Palestinian leadership have cynically abused the “Palestinian refugees” for over 75 years, using them as a political tool to attack Israel. Instead of demonstrating flexibility, Abbas has dogmatically rejected any solution, demanding that the refugees demographically and democratically destroy Israel.

• Clarify who he represents and what authority he has – Abbas has never enjoyed wide Palestinian support. When the Palestinians were asked who they thought was “the most deserving of representing the Palestinian people,” 49% expressed support for Hamas, that led the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre. Only 17% expressed support for Fatah, led by Abbas. Abbas is a dictator, now in his 20th year of his initial four-year term as PA Chairman. Since discussions with a person incapable of delivering on his commitments are futile, before Abbas can claim to represent the Palestinians, he must first clarify exactly what authority he has to speak on their behalf.

Following the U.S. elections, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas phoned President-elect Trump to wish him “success in his upcoming term in office” and to reaffirm “his readiness to work with President Trump in pursuit of a just and comprehensive peace, based on international legitimacy and principles.”1

While Abbas is once again professing his ostensible commitment to peace, his actions, during both President Trump’s first term in office and the Biden administration, tell a very different story.

If Abbas wants President-elect Trump to take him seriously, there are five requirements Abbas must meet to demonstrate his genuine commitment.

1. Unequivocally Condemn the October 7 Massacre

Abbas and the PA have never condemned the October 7 massacre. Quite the opposite is true. In the days following the massacre, Abbas’ Fatah organization bragged that it participated in the attack and that its members, “killed soldiers and stepped on their heads.”2 Palestinian leaders even went as far as to declare that the massacre was “a war of defense full of epics and acts of heroism.”3

The reason Abbas has not condemned the massacre is that while the attack was more extensive than the PA had ever managed to initiate, it nonetheless followed the PA doctrine of using terror and violence to achieve political goals. From the point of view of Abbas, the PA, and the PLO, Palestinian terror, including the massacre, is a justifiable expression of the Palestinian right to “resist.”

For Abbas and the PA, Hamas and the other Palestinian terror organizations that participated in the massacre, including members of his own Fatah Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades,4 are not terrorist organizations, but rather legitimate “Palestinian factions,” which should all unite under the unified banner of the PLO.5

Given this approach, it is thus not surprising, that the PA security forces, substantially funded, to this day by the United States,6 are doing little, if anything, to combat terror. Moreover, in an ever-growing number of cases, PA security personnel actively participate in terror.7

If Abbas wants to convince President-Elect Trump or anyone else that he has changed and is now genuinely interested in promoting peace, he needs to openly, in Arabic, unequivocally condemn the October 7 massacre and expel the Palestinian terror organizations, rather than embrace them. For this purpose, Abbas’ usual condemnation of “terror on all sides,” is insufficient.

He also needs to implement urgent reforms and ensure that the PA security forces are actively fighting terror rather than participating in the terror.

2. Abolish “Pay-for-Slay”

One of the most offensive policies implemented daily by the PA is its “Pay-for-Slay” system. As part of this policy, which is partially entrenched in PA law and partially entrenched in regulations of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), the PA/PLO pays hundreds of millions of dollars every year as a reward to Palestinians who participated in terror. Paid in the form of monthly salaries and stipends to terrorists and their families, the PA’s “Pay-for-Slay” policy promotes, incentivizes, and rewards terror. According to PA law, all Palestinian terrorists, including those who participated in the October 7 massacre, are “a fighting sector and integral part of the fabric of Arab Palestinian society.”8

In 2018, during President-elect Trump’s first term, the United States passed the bi-partisan Taylor Force Act (TFA). The act conditioned future direct U.S. aid to the PA on the abolishment of the “Pay-for-Slay” policy. Openly flouting and rejecting the legislation and its potential effects, the PA has continued implementing the policy without respite. Reaffirming his commitment to continue the policy, at all costs, Abbas responded to Trump and Congress by repeatedly saying that even if the PA is left with only one penny in its coffers, that penny would be paid first to the terrorists.9

Immediately upon the election of President Biden and even before he took office, PA officials rushed to tell the New York Times10 of their intention to fundamentally change the policy.

Four years later, despite having had the attentive ear of the Biden administration, no changes to the policy were implemented by Abbas, the PA, or the PLO.

In fact, Abbas’ actions show that his commitment to continue the policy, even to the last PA penny, was not just posturing. Rather. It is a reflection of the unwavering commitment by him, the PA, and the PLO to continue promoting, incentivizing, and rewarding terror. This commitment was so steadfast, that in some years, the PA’s payments to terrorists constituted a staggering 7.47% of its entire operational budget.11 Ignoring the Taylor Force Act, and the consequences of Israeli legislation, from 2018 through 2023, the PA/PLO paid over a billion dollars in financial rewards to terrorists.

To show his bona fide intentions, Abbas must immediately announce and implement the complete abolition of the PA’s “Pay-for-Slay” policy.

3. Stop All Delegitimization of Israel and Incitement to Violence and Dehumanization of Jews and Israelis

Implementing the “Plan of Stages,”12 Abbas, the PLO, and the PA have used the territory it was given in the Oslo Accords, to continue the assault on Israel. To this end, in the international arena, Abbas, the PA, and the PLO have engaged in a relentless effort to delegitimize Israel. Using every forum to undermine Israel’s right to exist as the nation-state of the Jewish people, Abbas has spared no effort.13 From attacking Israel in the United Nations, the ICJ, the ICC, and other fora, to accusing Israel of committing “50 Holocausts,”14 Abbas and the Palestinian propaganda machine have made a concerted effort to falsely paint Israel as an “apartheid” country, created illegitimately, and whose very existence poses a threat to global security. Any country or leader, including President-elect Trump, who did not kowtow to the Palestinian narrative became the focus of loathing and ridicule.

At the same time, in the local arena, the PA and the PLO made incitement to violence and terror as well as the dehumanization of Jews and Israelis,15 into a daily staple of hatred. Palestinian parents were poisoned and convinced that the death of their brainwashed children in attempts to murder Jews were noble deeds worthy of praise.16

Instead of presenting leaders of industry and innovators as role models for Palestinian society, Abbas, the PA, and the PLO glorify terrorist murderers, raise them on a pedestal, and tell Palestinians that their actions are to be emulated.

Cumulatively, it was this education to hate, indoctrination, and dehumanization of Jews that led to the October 7 massacre.

President-elect Trump has already questioned whether Abbas was lying to him about the Palestinian incitement of terror.17

If Abbas seeks to convince anyone, specifically Trump, of his ostensible commitment to peace, Abbas must publicly acknowledge and accept Israel’s right to exist as the nation-state of the Jewish people, immediately cease all incitement to terror and the glorification of terrorists, and fundamentally overhaul the PA school curriculum.

4. Agree to the Resettlement of the “Palestinian Refugees”

For decades, the “Palestinian refugees” have been cruelly and cynically held in limbo, both in an attempt to keep the Israeli-Arab conflict alive and as a means to perpetuate the fallacy that they will eventually flood Israel, destroying it demographically and democratically.18

For Abbas, the PLO, and the PA, the refugees are a political tool, used to maintain pressure on Israel. Accordingly, in the eyes of the Palestinian leadership, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) is nothing more than a “political symbol of the right of return” whose focus is “political and not humanitarian.”19

While the idea that Israel agrees to commit national suicide or pay billions of dollars of “compensation” to the refugees has never been viable, Abbas’ intransigence on the subject has cost many of the refugees their lives. In 2012, as the Syrian civil war raged, Israeli PM Netanyahu offered that the “Palestinian refugees” resident in Syria be given safe haven in Judea and Samaria. His sole condition was that those who settled in the area waived their “refugee” status. Abbas rejected the offer, preferring to leave the embattled refugees to their deadly fate in Syria.20

While the international community21 has provided billions of dollars to maintain UNRWA, no refugees have actually been resettled. While the UN recognized that the number of “Palestinian refugees” was no more than 711,000 people, by the end of 2018, UNRWA claimed22 there were 5,442,94723 “Palestinian refugees.” Six years later, as of the end of the second quarter of 2024, UNRWA claimed the number of refugees grew by more than 550,000 to 5,975,959 people.

This reality brought President-elect Trump, during his first term in September 2018, to cease all U.S. funding of UNRWA, claiming that the Agency was an “irredeemably flawed operation.”24

If Abbas truly desires peace, he must accept that it is time to relinquish the illusion that the “Palestinian refugees” will eventually flood and destroy Israel, thereby allowing for their resettlement in their host countries.

5. Clarify Who He Represents and What Authority He Has

Before Abbas can speak in the name of the “Palestinians,” he first needs to clarify who he represents and what authority he holds. In the mid 1970’s the United Nations recognized the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people.25 The decision was made in the absence of any other potential representative, and the recognition was predominantly declarative and theoretical. In the 50 years that have passed, many things have changed. These developments must be clarified.

While the UN may have recognized the PLO as the representative of the Palestinians, surveys conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) show that the Palestinians themselves, no longer support that decision.

According to the studies of the PCPSR, in 2006, 69% of Palestinians saw the PLO as their sole representative; that support dwindled to 58% in 2018, 54% in 2019, and only 51% in 2022. When the PCPSR asked the Palestinians in April 2024, who they thought was “the most deserving of representing the Palestinian people,” 49% expressed support for Hamas, the internationally-designated terror organization that led the October 7, 2023, massacre. Only 17% expressed support for Fatah, led by Abbas.

Clarifying who Abbas represents and what authority he holds is fundamental to avoiding mistakes of the past.

As a precondition to signing the Oslo Accords, the PLO leader Yasser Arafat committed to amending the Charter of the PLO and removing all references contained therein that called for the destruction of Israel. This commitment, like many others given by Arafat, proved to be empty. Five years after the signing of the initial agreement, U.S. President Clinton travelled to Gaza to ostensibly watch the vote to amend the Charter. In reality, the charter was never amended.

The PLO itself is also problematic. Established in 1964, the PLO is a conglomerate of Palestinian factions, some of which, such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), are internationally designated terror organizations.

The PFLP, among other PLO bodies, never accepted the Oslo Accords, and categorically refuses to accept the existence of Israel. Abbas, similar to his predecessor Arafat, has refused to take any actions to expel the PFLP or other rejectionist factions from the PLO or even denounce their actions.

Within the PA, Abbas last stood for election in 2005. Those elections were boycotted by Hamas. According to the PA Central Elections Committee, of the 1,760,481 potential voters, only 802,077 cast their ballots. Abbas won less than two-thirds of the votes of those who bothered to vote. From the outset, Abbas was an unpopular leader lacking any real support or legitimacy.

Recognizing that the PLO was no longer relevant for the United States. During Trump’s first term, in 2018, the State Department concluded that the “PLO had failed to use its Washington office to engage in direct and meaningful negotiations on achieving a comprehensive peace settlement and, therefore, closing the PLO’s Washington office would serve the foreign policy interests of the United States.” [Legal opinion of the U.S. State Department, “Statutory Restrictions on the PLO’s Washington Office”, Sept. 11, 2018.]

Even under President Biden, the PLO’s office in Washington was not reopened.

Abbas, now 89 years old, freely declares his willingness to promote peace, but the critical question that must be asked is what authority he, personally, or the organization he heads, the PLO, actually holds to make commitments in the name of the Palestinians.

*

Notes

1. President Abbas congratulates U.S. President-elect Trump, emphasizes commitment to peace – https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/151470↩︎

2. Fatah brags it took part in October 7 slaughter – https://palwatch.org/page/34720↩︎

3. Top Fatah official promises: “The next and more violent [than Oct. 7] explosion will be in the West Bank” – https://palwatch.org/page/34815↩︎

4. Fatah’s terror wing brags it helped Hamas in massacre, promises to continue terror – https://palwatch.org/page/34668↩︎

5. Abbas’ advisor calls on Hamas to join PLO – https://palwatch.org/page/35573↩︎

6. https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF10644↩︎

7. Officers by Day, Terrorists by Night – https://www.regavim.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/regavimTerrorReportEng1202.pdf; Report – Terrorists in Uniform: PMW Report documenting PA Security Forces involvement in terror – https://palwatch.org/page/34944↩︎

8. PA Law of Prisoners and Released Prisoners, (Law 19), 2004, article 2.↩︎

9. The PA stresses Abbas’ vow to keep rewarding terrorists with salaries, even if only “one penny” left – https://palwatch.org/page/23965; Palestinians support paying terrorists more than civil servants – PA official https://palwatch.org/page/35311↩︎

10. Seeking Restart With Biden, Palestinians Eye End to Prisoner Payments – https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/19/world/middleeast/biden-palestinian-prisoner-payments.html↩︎

11. Palestinian Misrepresentation and Falsification of the Oslo Accords Tax Provisions – https://jcpa.org/article/palestinian-misrepresentation-and-falsification-of-the-oslo-accords-tax-provisions/↩︎

12. The PA Tries to Fool the World – https://jcpa.org/the-pa-tries-to-fool-the-world/↩︎

13. The “State of Palestine” is just a stepping-stone to the destruction of Israel – https://palwatch.org/page/31984↩︎

14. Mahmoud Abbas’ “Israel committed 50 holocausts” – is fundamental to PA ideology – https://palwatch.org/page/31885↩︎

15. https://palwatch.org/all/1↩︎

16. How and why the PA kills its own children: Special Report for UN World Children’s Day – https://palwatch.org/page/32378↩︎

17. Abbas lies – Will Trump buy? – https://palwatch.org/page/12242↩︎

18. For the PA, “peace” means destroying Israel by flooding it with 5.6 million Palestinian “refugees” – https://palwatch.org/page/18090↩︎

19. Crucial PA admission: UNRWA is a political, not a humanitarian organization – https://palwatch.org/page/29616↩︎

20. Abbas rejects Israeli offer to allow Palestinian refugees from Syria into the PA, because they would have to renounce the “right of return” – https://palwatch.org/page/4510↩︎

21. Predominantly the European countries and the USA: The UNRWA Funding Anomaly – https://jcpa.org/the-unrwa-funding-anomaly/↩︎

22. Since the UNRWA population statistics are clearly unreliable (UNRWA’s “Palestine Refugee” Hoax – https://jcpa.org/unrwas-palestine-refugee-hoax/), the real number of refugees is unclear.↩︎

23. https://www.un.org/unispal/document/unrwa-in-figures-2018-factsheet/↩︎

24. US ends all funding to UN agency for Palestinian refugees – https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/31/politics/trump-administration-ending-funding-palestinian-refugees/index.html↩︎

25. UNGA 3375↩︎