PA President Mahmoud Abbas, addressing the EU in Brussels. Photo: Screenshot.

Instead of promoting peaceful coexistence, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has decided to honor yet another Palestinian terrorist who killed numerous Israeli civilians.

On Sunday, the PA unveiled a statue of terrorist Ahmad Jabarah Abu Sukkar, who orchestrated a deadly bombing in Jerusalem that killed 15 and injured more than 60 Israelis in 1976, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reports.

Abu Sukkar was released from Israeli prison after serving 28 years of a life sentence as part of an Israeli goodwill gesture to the PA in 2003.

Senior Palestinian officials — including the director of the PA’s Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, Issa Karake, and the governor of Ramallah and El-Bireh, Laila Ghannam — participated in the terrorist’s commemoration.

Karake proclaimed that “this monument is intended to implant in the minds of sons and daughters that we are continuing to be loyal to the path of the Martyrs,” the official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida reported.

“Ahmad Abu Sukkar is a real man, a fighter, and a man who left his impression on everyone, and who was a school for giving, resolve, and courage. We are proud of him as one of the symbols of the Palestinian national struggle…” Karake said.

The presence of these senior officials reinforces the fact that the Palestinian government openly glorifies people for murdering innocent Israelis, while encouraging future generations of Palestinian youth to emulate terrorists.

Earlier this month, members of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee agreed to explore options to stifle a PLO program that pays monthly salaries to convicted terrorists. Palestinian-affiliated organizations, including the PLO, are continuing to exploit a loophole in US foreign aid that enables the Palestinian government to pay terrorists and their families. Coupled with systematic indoctrination and glorification of terrorism, generous financial payments contribute to existing incentives among Palestinian youth to attack and kill innocent Israelis.

In a speech aired on YouTube on Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas cancel the terrorist commemoration to avoid promoting violence among Palestinian youth.

“Rather than dedicate a statue to a mass-murderer, I ask that you consider honoring a champion of co-existence. This will help educate future generations to love peace over war, compassion over violence,” said Netanyahu. Yet the PA’s terrorist commemoration went on as planned.

Steven Emerson is the Executive Director the Investigative Project on Terrorism (www.investigativeproject.org) where this article first appeared.