Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas looks on as he visits the Istishari Cancer Center in Ramallah, in the West Bank, May 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohammed Torokman

Naive European leaders embrace and praise Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Mahmoud Abbas as a peacemaker — but the PA continues to justify and even glorify terror when the Europeans aren’t looking or listening.

While official PA TV regularly interviews PA officials who laud imprisoned and released terrorists, the most explicit support for terror was expressed in three official Twitter posts on the Palestinian Authority’s X page.

The PA’s post lamented that “still more than 10,000 captives are unlawfully held by Israel” followed by, “over 10,000 remain unlawfully held captive.”

The use of the term “unlawfully” is consistent with PA ideology that Palestinians have the right to murder Israelis and thus all terrorist prisoners are “prisoners of war” — lawful fighters who were captured during lawful combat and therefore must be freed.

The PA’s “lawful” fighters include bomb builder Abdullah Barghouti, who was responsible for the murder of 67 Israelis, and Ibraham Hamid, who is serving 54 life sentences. They are responsible for the murder of these people:

The naive European leaders embrace Mahmoud Abbas because he claims publicly that he condemns terrorism. However, when addressing Arabic-speaking, Palestinian audiences, he says that murdering Israelis is legitimate resistance, that those who kill Israelis “are more honorable” than all other Palestinians, and that they are “stars in the sky of the Palestinian people.”

Since Mahmoud Abbas does not consider the murder of Israelis to be terrorism, he can tell President Macron and Prime Minister Starmer that he condemns terrorism while embracing and rewarding those same murderers.

These newest Twitter posts make it clear that the PA hasn’t changed one iota from being a terror-supporting entity, in spite of all the lavish praise from Europe.

Here’s Palestinian Media Watch (PMW)’s suggestion to Macron and Starmer. Pick up the phone, call Mahmoud Abbas, and ask him one simple question: Are Abdullah Barghouti and Ibrahim Hamed terrorists? Tell him that the phone call is being recorded and that his answer will be publicized.

PMW is waiting to hear Abbas’ answer.

The author is the Founder and Director of Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.