PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Photo: Twitter

During meetings this week with terrorists released from Israeli prisons, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas vowed to “make every effort to end the suffering of our heroic brothers and release them from the occupation’s prisons so they can take part in building the homeland for which they sacrificed,” the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reported on Wednesday.

The terrorists with whom Abbas met on Sunday, according to MEMRI, were 14-year-old Osama Zaidat, shot while attempting to stab Israelis in Kiryat Arba in September — and recently released from detention — and Imad Asaf, a member of Fatah’s military wing, the Al-Aqsa Brigades, who took part in the Second Intifada in 2000 and was recently let out of jail.

He also greeted members of the family of Muhammad Al-Jallad, who died of his wounds after being shot in November while attempting to carry out a stabbing attack at a checkpoint.

According to MEMRI, this is but one of many instances of Abbas’ emphasis on his efforts to free prisoners. The report cited as an example a reception in August for the released prisoner Shadi Al-Baba of the Al-Qassam Brigades, where he said: “The issue of the prisoners will continue to be a top priority for the [Palestinian] leadership, [which will act] to free all the prisoners and detainees.”

At the Seventh Fatah Conference on December 1, Abbas similarly praised senior Fatah and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine perpetrators of attacks, including the 2001 assassination of Israeli minister Rehavam Ze’evi, saying: “We remember the martyrs, the wounded and the prisoners and their record… We salute our brave prisoners and respect them. We will not forget our fighting comrades…or [our] glorious woman prisoners.”

Abbas’ meetings this week come on the heels of discussions in the US and Europe about the continued provision of financial aid to the PA, when its leaders encourage and incentivize terrorism.

Late last month, as The Algemeiner reported, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina reintroduced legislation that would cut off American funding of the PA if it continues to pay monetary rewards to terrorists and their families.

Called the Taylor Force Act — in honor of the 28-year-old West Point graduate who was murdered in a stabbing attack carried out by a Palestinian terrorist in Tel Aviv last March — it was first unveiled in September, two months prior to the presidential and congressional elections.