Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 27, 2018. Photo: Reuters / Carlo Allegri.

i24 News – Israeli Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman said Monday his fellow ministers should boycott Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whom he accused of incitement against Israel.

“He must not be legitimized… He cannot be a partner for anything,” Liberman told a faction meeting of his Yisrael Beiteinu party in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.

“He is a terrorist like all other terrorists. He only deals with political terrorism, which is sometimes even more dangerous and harmful than conventional terrorism,” he said.

The remarks were widely seen as an attack on Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who has met Abbas several times.

Since taking office nearly a year ago, Abbas has held a series of meetings with senior Israeli officials, marking a dramatic shift from relations under Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu.

The latest was a meeting between Abbas and Shin Bet director Ronen Bar last month in Ramallah, which followed a meeting in November 2021, shortly after Bar took over as head of the internal security service.

Abbas also met twice with Gantz, as well as Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz.

Bennett has repeatedly said he has no intention of meeting the Palestinian Authority leader, as he believes such a meeting would have “no value,” but he did not prevent ministers and other officials from doing so.