Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Photo: Kremlin.ru via Wikimedia Commons.

In an address delivered at the 7th Fatah Congress in Ramallah on Wednesday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas praised numerous late terrorists as “martyrs,” the Elder of Ziyon blog reported.

According to the popular pro-Israel blog, the list of “martyrs” mentioned by the Western-backed Abbas during his three-hour speech included Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Islamic Jihad founder Fathi Shaqaqi, PFLP founder George Habash and pre-World War II era Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini, among others.

“They are all our heroes, you will not forget them, they are immortal in our people’s memory, and the homeland of Palestine,” Abbas was quoted as saying. “Their sacrifices will not be in vain.”

According to Israeli news website Arutz Sheva, Abbas also said the PA would maintain its refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

The Jordan-based Ammon news site quoted Abbas as saying about US President-elect Donald Trump, “We know nothing about him. His people elected him. We didn’t, and if he wants to talk with us, we are pursuing that…We hope that he will be able to offer something to the Palestinian cause, to offer a solution, a sane, balanced and fair (solution).”

On Tuesday, as reported in The Algemeiner, Fatah unanimously re-elected the 81-year-old Abbas to serve as its leader for another five years.

Last month, The Algemeiner reported that Egypt was pressuring Abbas to appoint a successor. The same report said Arab League member-states were seeking to bring 55-year-old former Fatah strongman Mohammed Dahlan — an exiled Abbas rival who currently lives in the United Arab Emirates — back into the Palestinian political picture, for the purpose of making him a candidate to take the aging PA president’s place in the future.

Earlier this year, an Israeli expert on Arab affairs warned that the PA’s grip on the West Bank was weakening.