A senior member of the Palestinian Authority’s ruling Fatah party denounces US demands that Hamas disarm, denies that Hamas is a terrorist organization.

By World Israel News Staff

A senior Palestinian Authority official denounced American demands that Hamas be disarmed as a condition for implementing the second phase of the Trump administration’s 20-point Gaza plan and denied that the Islamist group engages in terrorism.

On Monday, the Egypt-based Shorouk News published an interview with Azzam al-Ahmad, a senior member of the PA’s ruling Fatah party and the secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee.

In the interview, al-Ahmad said that the PLO does not view Hamas as a terrorist organization and is planning to allow the group to run in the Palestinian Authority’s municipal elections, slated for April.

Hamas, he continued, is an integral part of the Palestinian “fabric.”

“We’ve never regarded them as a terrorist organization,” al-Ahmad said. “They are part of the Palestinian national fabric.”

Al-Ahmad emphasized that the PLO rejects calls for Hamas to be disarmed, slamming US pressure on Hamas as “unacceptable.”

“All talk of disarming Hamas and it being a terrorist organization is unacceptable to us.”

The former Palestinian Authority minister, who also briefly served as deputy premier, strongly criticized the Trump administration’s approach to the Gaza Strip, arguing that American opposition to Hamas involvement in the postwar governance of Gaza is part of a broader attempt to keep Palestinians from running the strip.

“They don’t want Palestinians generally,” al-Ahmad said, while calling US demands that the Palestinian Authority reform a “false pretense.”

“We believe the primary goal of these demands is to waste time.”

Turning to the October 7 invasion of Israel, al-Ahmad described the attacks as a “strategic error that inflicted immense damage on Gaza.”

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Gaza terror group reportedly considering abandoning its military wing as part of a larger Palestinian rapprochement, which would include joining the PLO.

By World Israel News Staff

The Hamas terror organization is considering separating its political wing from its military wing, with the former becoming a member faction within the Palestine Liberation Organization, Hamas officials speaking on condition of anonymity say.

The sources were cited by a report published in the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, telling the outlet that Hamas is reviewing a number of proposals aimed at implementing the second phase of the Trump administration’s Gaza peace deal.

While the US plan calls for an international peacekeeping force to oversee the demilitarization of Gaza and the disarming of Hamas, the Islamist terror group has thus far refused to hand over its weapons to non-Palestinian organizations, and has denounced the calls to deploy foreign peacekeepers to Gaza.

One of the alternatives being mulled by Hamas’ leaders would see the group dismantle its military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, with the political wing of Hamas joining the Palestine Liberation Organization.

In this scenario, Hamas’ political wing would be integrated as a member faction of the PLO and a political entity within the Palestinian Authority.

Following Hamas’ takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007 and a leadership crisis in the PA, Hamas split from the Palestinian Authority, leaving the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria under separate de facto regimes.

Under the proposal mentioned in the report, Hamas would again be “capable of taking part in political, economic, social and general public life” in the Palestinian Authority, a Hamas source said.

The officials cited acknowledged that two years of war with Israel had left the terror group with diminished support inside the Gaza Strip, adding that by becoming an exclusively political organization it could enhance its standing within the PA.

The Hamas officials quoted in the report emphasized, however, that if the group’s military wing is dismantled, it would be done only within the framework of a broad Palestinian rapprochement, with control of Gaza handed over to other Palestinian factions and with Hamas’ arsenal given over to the PA.

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Former Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called the Oct. 7 massacre “courageous” and an “important crossroads” in the Palestinian struggle, but misguided because Hamas did not anticipate the scale of civilian casualties.

Former Palestinian PM Mohammad Shtayyeh: October 7 Was a Courageous Historic Operation, But It Was Miscalculated; Hamas Did Not Take into Consideration the Citizens of Gaza; We Invite Hamas to Join the PLO, And Change It from Within pic.twitter.com/glvR8lJCNz

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) August 7, 2025

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Born in 1960, Sheikh is a veteran of Fatah — the main PLO faction founded by Arafat and now led by Abbas — and is widely seen as a pragmatist with strong ties to Israel.

By Reuters and Algemeiner

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas named close confidant Hussein al-Sheikh as his deputy and likely successor on Saturday, the Palestine Liberation Organization said, a step widely seen as needed to assuage international doubts over Palestinian leadership.

Abbas, 89, has headed the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the PA since the death of veteran leader Yasser Arafat in 2004, but has for years resisted internal reforms, including the naming of a successor.

Sheikh, born in 1960, is a veteran of Fatah, the main PLO faction, which was founded by Arafat and is now headed by Abbas. He is widely viewed as a pragmatist with very close ties to Israel.

He was named PLO vice president after the organization’s executive committee approved his nomination by Abbas, the PLO said in a statement.

Reform of the PA, which exercises limited autonomy in Judea and Samaria, has been a priority for the United States and Gulf monarchies, hoping the body can play a central role in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Pressure to reform has intensified since the start of the war in Gaza, where the PLO’s main Palestinian rival Hamas has battled Israel for more than 18 months, leaving the tiny, crowded territory in ruins.

The US has promoted the idea of a reformed PA governing in Gaza after the war. Gulf monarchies, which are seen as the most likely source of funding for reconstruction in Gaza after the war, also want major reforms of the body.

Call for Hamas to disarm

Israel’s declared goal in Gaza is the destruction of Hamas but it has also ruled out giving the PA any role in government there. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he opposes the creation of a Palestinian state.

Hamas, which follows a militant Islamist ideology, has controlled Gaza since 2007 when it defeated the PA in a brief civil war after winning an election the previous year. It also has a large presence in Judea and Samaria.

At a meeting of the PLO’s Central Council on Wednesday and Thursday that approved the position of vice president without naming an appointee, Abbas made his clearest ever call for Hamas to completely disarm and hand its weapons – and responsibility for governing in Gaza – to the PA.

Widespread corruption, lack of progress towards an independent state and increasing Israeli military incursions in Judea and Samaria have undermined the PA’s popularity among many Palestinians.

The body has been controlled by Fatah since it was formed in the Oslo Accords with Israel in 1993 and it last held parliamentary elections in 2005.

Sheikh, who was imprisoned by Israel for his activities opposing the occupation during the period 1978-89, has worked as the PA’s main contact liaising with the Israeli government under Abbas and been his envoy on visits to world powers.

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The PLO’s money arm was the largest foreign principal for his law firm.

By Daniel Greenfield, Frontpage Magazine

“Will Doug Emhoff’s Legal Career Be an Issue for the Biden-Harris Ticket?” the New York Times asked four years ago.

The newspaper noted that Emhoff, the husband of Kamala Harris, was a partner at DLA Piper whose “lobbying clients” had included the governments of Afghanistan and Bahrain, as well as the Qatari government-funded Al Jazeera Network and the Palestine Monetary Authority.

DLA Piper was good to the Emhoff-Harris family with the family taking home $2.7 million in 2019 and $1.2 million in 2020.

“To aspire to create wealth is a good thing as far as I’m concerned. If that is what one chooses. I, on the other hand, have chosen to live a life of public service,’ Kamala had claimed.

But the “life of public service” led to her husband’s role at DLA Piper.

And two DLA Piper clients are connected to a flashpoint in Kamala’s foreign policy.

As vice president, Kamala pursued a harsher line against Israel than Biden, virulently denouncing the Jewish state over its military campaign against Hamas terrorists after Oct 7.

DLA Piper not only represented Qatar through its state-owned Al Jazeera terrorist propaganda network, but has an office there as part of the Qatar Financial Centre Branch of DLA Piper Middle East.

Qatar harbors Hamas and funded it along with other Islamic terrorist groups.

The enemy terrorist outlet hired DLA Piper around the same time that some members of Congress had asked why Al Jazeera was not complying with the Foreign Agents Registration Act and why the Department of Justice had failed to bring the Qatari operation into compliance.

This occurred in 2019 when Emhoff was still a partner at DLA Piper, though he was not involved with that particular case, that was part of a relationship with Qatar that predated his time there.

DLA Piper however also entered into an agreement with the Palestine Monetary Authority for $600,000 to “strengthen its relationship with the American government” signed with PMA boss Jihad Al Wazir.

As of 2019, DLA Piper was still representing the banking arm of the PLO and sending out invitations to members of Congress to meet with then PMA head Azzam Shawwa.

By 2021, the PMA had become DLA Piper’s largest foreign principal.

The Palestine Monetary Authority came to prominence after a lawsuit by the family of a terror victim.

Yaron Ungar, an American, along with his wife were murdered by Islamic terrorists in Israel.

The family sued the PLO and Hamas and won a sizable judgment against the terrorists.

Since the terrorist groups aren’t themselves in America, the Palestine Monetary Authority, which manages funds from the terrorist area’s ‘banks’ had its assets frozen leading to an extended legal battle.

The PMA claimed to be an independent entity but lawyers representing the terror victim’s surviving son pointed out that initial capital came out of the PLO’s ‘Palestinian Authority’, that its “its shortfall was to be paid by the PA, and its profits were to be paid to the PA.

As to management, the PMA’s governor is appointed by the PA chairman as are its board members, their salaries are determined by him, and he has the right to terminate the PMA board members and officers.

Additionally, the Ungars showed that the PMA regularly used the PA’s letterhead.”

While law firms can take on all sorts of clients and Douglas Emhoff did not appear to have been involved in the Palestine Monetary Authority case, as a partner he likely benefited from the overall prosperity of the firm and politically he and Kamala might have benefited from the relationships created through his role at one of the top big government law firms.

Freedom Center Investigates previously found that Kamala Harris began receiving political donations from lawyers at firms where Emhoff was a partner beginning with their marriage and then his move to DLA Piper after she became a senator.

But beyond that there is a complex triangle of relationships between the Biden administration, the Palestine Monetary Authority and DLA Piper.

The Biden administration appointed George Salem as the chairman of the USAID’s ‘Partnership for Peace Fund’ tasked with handing out $250 million to Israeli and ‘Palestinian’ peace projects just three months after he had spent six years as a registered foreign agent for the Palestine Monetary Authority.

Salem had previously lobbied for Qatar’s Al Jazeera, also represented by DLA Piper, and had entered into what the firm describes as having “entered into a relationship as Strategic Advisor with DLA Piper”.

When Salem was appointed to head the $250 million fund, DLA Piper issued a press release.

A few things that Emhoff’s former law firm didn’t mention is that Salem was a co-founder of various anti-Israel groups, sat on the board of the American Task Force on Palestine and of UNRWA USA, and had also represented the Hamas front group, the ‘Holy Land Foundation’, Salem was not only its lawyer, but had supported HLF even before charges were brought against it.

And Salem, a longtime figure in political circles, had donated to DLA Piper’s PAC.

Kamala had started as an insider in California Democrat politics, but even though she only spent a brief amount of time in the Senate, her husband’s very profitable law firms brought the Emhoff-Harris family into contact with foreign influence and foreign money in D.C.

Freedom Center Investigates had previously reported on the intersection between Emhoff’s previous law firm and its Cuban business, and Kamala’s opposition to the embargo on the Communist dictatorship.

Similar questions might be asked about the intersection of Kamala’s hostility to Israel and the problematic and even terrorist clients of her husband’s law firm.

DLA Piper has represented Israeli companies and clients, but the relationship to the Palestine Monetary Authority and Qatar, is troubling, and raises questions about the Emhoff-Harris family.

Democrats have long used Douglas Emhoff, Kamala’s husband, who was raised in a Jewish family, as a defense against critics noting her troubling political views, but Emhoff’s law firm connections raise their own issues, both apart from his wife and perhaps reflective of her.

Kamala’s husband did not personally represent terrorists, terrorist sponsors or terrorist-linked entities during his time at DLA Piper (one of his clients at a previous law firm was however an arms dealer who was since charged and plead guilty) but he benefited from a firm that did.

In Washington D.C., it’s a better idea to follow the money than to follow the speeches. Kamala and her husband have made plenty of speeches, but more importantly, they cashed the checks.

The post Kamala is anti-Israel. Her husband’s law firm repped the PLO appeared first on World Israel News.

Reports are showing the resignation of the PA government is imminent, with Hamas agreeing to be involved in the post-war Gaza government.

The post WATCH: ‘Hamas is under pressure for many reasons and from all sides’ appeared first on World Israel News.

Hamas hasn’t sought ministerial roles yet but insists on a clear path to a Palestinian state for the unity deal.

By Akiva Van Koningsveld, JNS

The Palestinian Authority is inching closer to an agreement that would see Hamas terrorists become part of the Western-backed leadership in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, Arabic media outlets reported on Tuesday.

Sources in Ramallah told Sky News Arabia that Hamas approved a three-phase plan leading to “complete reconciliation [with Fatah]” and the Gaza-based terror group joining the Palestine Liberation Organization, which controls the Palestinian Authority, under a “unified Palestinian-Arab vision.”

The Islamist group reportedly also gave its blessing to P.A. chief Mahmoud Abbas’s proposal to establish a “government of technocrats” whose primary purpose would be the reconstruction of Gaza after the war prompted by Hamas’s murder of some 1,200 people in Israel on Oct. 7.

According to Sky News, Hamas has not requested any ministerial posts at this point, but it did demand a “clear political horizon” towards establishing a Palestinian state as a condition for the unity deal.

Hamas openly seeks to destroy Israel in its entirety and replace it with a Palestinian-Islamic state. Article 13 of its charter states that “there is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad [holy war].”

Hamas terror leader Ismail Haniyeh repeated his desire to annihilate the Jewish state early last year, saying that “all of Palestine, from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea, and from Ras al-Naquora [Rosh Hanikra on the Israel-Lebanon border] to Umm al-Rashrash [Eilat, Israel’s southernmost city], is one land that is indivisible and cannot be sold or bargained.”

The 1995 Oslo II Accords with Israel state that “the nomination of any candidates, parties, or coalitions will be refused, and such nomination or registration once made will be canceled, if such candidates, parties, or coalitions … commit or advocate racism or pursue the implementation of their aims by unlawful or non-democratic means.”

An aide to Abbas told The Media Line on Tuesday that there was “real progress” in the talks with Hamas and emphasized that Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Jordan are “playing a critical role in advancing the efforts.”

Earlier this week, at the invitation of Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Abbas traveled to Doha to discuss ways to incorporate Hamas into a P.A.-led government for Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

Saudi-based Asharq News reported that Tamim agreed to relay Abbas’s proposal to Hamas following their meeting on Monday.

Hamas officials told the outlet that while it welcomes cooperation with the P.A., the terrorist group demands to be consulted on “every step,” including the members of the prospective government.

Qatar, which hosts Hamas’s leadership in Doha and has provided the terrorist group with hundreds of millions of dollars, played a prominent role in mediating the release of Israeli hostages last year.

It has previously deflected accusations of playing a double game, saying the United States requested that it open that mediation channel.

The Biden administration wants the P.A. to assume control of Gaza after the war against Hamas ends, a move that Israel vehemently rejects because of Ramallah’s overt support for terrorism.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has insisted that an “effective and revitalized Palestinian Authority” should ultimately govern the Strip.

During a Jan. 10 meeting in Ramallah, Blinken pressed Abbas on “administrative reforms, which, if implemented, would benefit the Palestinian people.” Sky News Arabia described the tête-à-tête as “tense” and marked by “arguments.”

On Jan. 27, Abbas’s spokesman told Al Arabiya that the P.A. is prepared to hand over the reins to Hamas after the conflict. Ramallah is “prepared to hold general elections, and if Hamas wins, the president will hand over the [Palestinian] Authority,” spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said.

The U.S. State Department has refused to rule out Hamas retaining power in Gaza or even joining a P.A.-led governing body that would also have jurisdiction in Judea and Samaria.

According to Palestinian polls, 89% of Palestinians support establishing a government that includes or is led by Hamas. Only around 8.5% said they favor an authority controlled exclusively by Abbas’s Fatah faction.

The post ‘Real progress’ in unifying Hamas and PA says Abbas aide appeared first on World Israel News.

She contributed some 11.7 million euros to the UAWC which is closely connected to the PLO.

By Akiva Van Koningsveld, JNS

The United Nations has tasked the outgoing finance minister of the Netherlands, Sigrid Kaag, with coordinating the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip in the wake of Israel’s war against Hamas, outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced on Tuesday evening.

Kaag, who previously served as the European country’s minister for foreign affairs and development cooperation, admitted to parliament in 2020 that her ministry had paid part of the salaries of two terrorists involved in the murder of an Israeli teenager.

The terrorists implicated in the attack were employed by the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), which has close ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group.

Ignoring multiple warnings from Israeli watchdog groups, Kaag, who is married to Anis al-Qaq, a former Palestinian Authority deputy minister and PLO ambassador, continued to support the UAWC, contributing some 11.7 million euros ($12.9 million) between 2017 and 2020.

In addition, before joining the Dutch government in 2017, Kaag served in multiple senior United Nations roles, including at the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Tweeting on Tuesday, Rutte wished Kaag “success with this important task,” adding that “the Netherlands is proud of this nomination and will support her work and that of the U.N. in every possible way.”

“It’s an honor that the secretary-general of the United Nations, António Guterres, has requested me to accept the task of Special Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza,” Kaag said on X.

“I have accepted this exceptional assignment in the hope of contributing to a better future,” said Kaag, announcing that she requested that Dutch King Willem-Alexander accept her resignation effective Jan. 8.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry told JNS it may bar specific U.N. officials from entering the Jewish state and would decide whether to grant visas to them on a case-by-case basis.

The diplomatic move was taken following the “disgraceful” response by the international body to the Oct. 7 massacre in which Hamas terrorists murdered more than 1,200 people in Israel, Jerusalem added.

A Foreign Ministry spokesperson did not immediately offer comment on whether Kaag would be welcome in Israel.

The post Dutch minister accused of financing terror groups selected for reconstructing Gaza appeared first on World Israel News.

Despite immense documentation of Hamas atrocities, the PLO called it ‘tendentious Israeli propaganda.’

The post WATCH: PLO denies Hamas mass rapes, murder of children appeared first on World Israel News.

PLO Spokesperson Talal Dweikat said every Palestinian is backing the resistance against the ‘Israeli occupation.’

The post WATCH: ‘No Palestinian will condemn Oct. 7th’ appeared first on World Israel News.

The Palestinian Authority-controlled camp has become a breeding ground for Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

By JNS and World Israel News Staff

Four Palestinian terrorists were reportedly killed by Israeli forces in the Jenin refugee camp on Tuesday night, the latest flare-up in the flashpoint northern Samaria region.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that troops were operating in the camp, and that a Rafael-made SPIKE FireFly, or “suicide drone,” targeted a terrorist there. The Palestinian Authority health ministry said four Palestinians were killed and 12 others wounded.

Elite military forces were reportedly spearheading the mission on the ground targeting a senior commander in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is affiliated with Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is in New York City for the United Nations General Assembly, was being updated on the situation, per a statement from his office.

Earlier this month, IDF troops arrested three Hamas terrorists during a raid in the camp. All of them were involved in “extensive” terrorist activity and perpetrated or directed IED and shooting attacks, according to the military.

Less than 48 hours later, Israeli forces arrested another wanted terrorist in the camp, which has become a breeding ground for Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

In July, the military carried out a major counterterrorism operation in Jenin, including in the camp.

More than 1,000 IDF troops participated in the campaign, which is believed to have been the largest deployment in Judea and Samaria in two decades.

The post Four Palestinian terrorists said killed amid clashes with IDF in Jenin camp appeared first on World Israel News.

The senior terrorist belonged to the Tanzim group associated with the PA’s ruling Fatah faction. 

By World Israel News Staff

The IDF arrested a senior operative of the Tanzim terror group — associated with the Palestinian Authority’s ruling Fatah party — in a raid in the Jenin refugee camp on Wednesday.

The terrorist, Muhammad Naghnaghiya, is suspected of playing a role in several terror attacks in Judea and Samaria in recent months, the IDF said.

Following the raid, an image of the terrorist accompanying the notorious Al Aqsa Brigades commander Zakaria Zubeidi in the early 2000s was published on Palestinian media sites. Zubeidi was released by Israel in a 2007 amnesty deal, but was detained again a decade later.

While awaiting trial, Zubeidi fled Gilboa Prison exactly two years ago along with five other terrorists serving life sentences. The group was apprehended weeks later by Israeli forces following a lengthy manhunt.

The raid to apprehend Naghnaghiya comes less than two days after another IDF operation in Jenin during which three Hamas operatives were apprehended. Israeli troops came under enemy fire during the raid. A total of nine terrorists were detained in operations across Judea and Samaria on Wednesday.

Since the beginning of the year, 27 civilians and three soldiers have been murdered by Palestinian terrorists. According to the Times of Israel, 180 Palestinians – most of them terrorists attempting to carry out attacks against Jewish civilians – have been killed by Israeli troops during that time.

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Abbas dissolved the Palestinian legislature, reshaped PA institutions and shows no interest in holding new elections.

By TPS

Over the last three and a half years, Palestinian Authority (PA) head Mahmoud Abbas has made decisions and implemented fundamental changes in the Palestinian political system, essentially leading it toward a dictatorship.

The decisions merged, integrated, and replaced the PA institutions with those of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Fatah, which he leads.

Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) is warning that the cumulative goal of these decisions is to abolish completely the last remaining bits of democracy in the PA.

PMW explained that facing the reality that Abbas may be incapable of fulfilling his duties, and in an effort to guarantee that his Fatah party will continue to dominate the PA, he has fundamentally changed the Palestinian political system.

The first change Abbas made was to make structural changes in the PLO that grant him enhanced control. The Palestinian National Council (PNC) is the legislative institution of the PLO.

Due to its size and the geographical dispersion of its members, the PNC almost never convened. To facilitate his control over the PLO, in May 2018, Abbas ensured that the PNC transferred its powers to a much smaller and more easily dominated Palestinian Central Committee (PCC).

The move would later be used, in February 2022, by Abbas to push through the PCC a decision ordering the PLO Executive Committee to reformulate the institutions of the PA.

In December 2018, Abbas made the second change when he dissolved the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), which functions as the PA parliament. The PA parliament, which has not functioned since 2006, is to a great extent, the embodiment of PA democracy. While Abbas has previously promised new elections within six months, no such elections ever materialized.

The dissolving of the parliament was followed in February 2019 by a subtle change. Since 2006, the introductory passages to legislation adopted by the PA had cited provisions in the PA “Basic Law” – seen as the PA’s constitution – as the source for legislative authority. After dissolving the parliament, Abbas decided to abandon the PA constitution as the source of executive power and replace it with the constitution of the PLO – a document drawn up solely by the PLO and for the PLO.

Since the decision to restructure the PLO organs, dissolve the PA parliament, and abandon the PA constitution were completed in 2018 to 2019, it is clear that by then, Abbas had already made the decision that no more general elections would ever be held in the PA, PMW noted.

Calls for elections were forced on Abbas by the US and the EU who demanded that the Palestinian leadership renew its legitimacy. However, this was “merely a deceptive ploy, designed to hoodwink the international community and scapegoat Israel,” PMW pointed out.

Abbas made another toward his silent takeover of the PA in February 2022, when the newly empowered PCC adopted a decision ordering the PLO Executive Committee, also headed by Abbas, to reformulate the institutions of the PA

“By replacing the PA institutions with the PLO institutions, Abbas is trying to guarantee that general Palestinian elections will never take place again and that Fatah, that controls the PLO, will continue to rule whatever remains of the PA,” PMW warned.

“If Abbas’ plan materializes, the next Chairman of the PA will not be elected in open elections throughout the PA-controlled areas. Rather, the next head of the PLO will automatically declare himself to be the ‘President of the State of Palestine.’”

PMW further wrote that Abbas’ moves “should set off alarm bells for every country that donates aid to the Palestinians via the PA. While the donor countries would like to believe that they are providing aid to the Palestinian people, in reality, what they are doing is to sustain the PLO and entrench the Fatah hegemony.

PMW added that “If the international community does not step in and demand that Abbas roll back his anti-democratic moves, the result will be to further entrench the dictatorial rule by Fatah over the PA-controlled areas in Judea and Samaria, while Hamas will continue to rule the Gaza Strip.”

On July 15, US President Joe Biden met with Abbas and stated that “now is the time to strengthen Palestinian institutions, to improve governance, transparency, and accountability. All of this work is critical. And it will help build a society that can support a successful, democratic future, and a future Palestinian state.

“While the aspirations of the US administration are clear, Abbas knows that any association between the PA and a ‘democratic future’ for the Palestinians or to ‘strengthen Palestinian institutions, to improve governance,’ is today, further than ever from being an achievable goal,” PMW concluded.

The post Mahmoud Abbas consolidating ‘dictatorial rule’ over Palestinians, watchdog warns appeared first on World Israel News.

Mahmoud Abbas also demands the Palestine Liberation Organization be dropped from State Dept. terror list.

By Baruch Yedid, TPS

During an angry phone call between Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on May 31, the latter promised Abbas that the Biden administration would soon add the Israeli Lehava (Flame) and La Familia organizations to the list of US-designated terrorist organizations, TPS has learned.

Blinken said that the Israeli government is also working to declare these two organizations terrorist organizations.

This move follows Abbas’ complaint about an alleged series of acts of violence and incitement against the Palestinians and following his demand to remove the PLO from the U.S. list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO).

Sources also report that during Abbas’ recent meeting with Barbara Leaf, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, he shouted at her and protested that the US was willing to remove the Kahana Chai movement from the list of terrorist organizations.

“How do you allow yourself to sit with the head of the terrorist authority? Time and time again, you repeatedly define me as a terrorist as chairman of the PLO, while you recognize that the Kahana movement is not a terrorist entity,” Abbas shouted at Leaf.

Lehava is considered a far-right organization that combats Jewish assimilation in Israel, especially relationships between Jewish girls and Arab men.

La Familia is a far-right group of racist hooligans who support the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team. It’s motto is “Beitar, forever pure.” Estimates say La Familia has as many as 3,000 supporters.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz recently said that outlawing the Lehava organization is being examined by the defense establishment. “It will be done in the cleanest and best way,” he said. Other ministers have voiced similar sentiments.

After clashes between several marchers and Arabs in the Old City of Jerusalem on Jerusalem Day, including calls by a group of La Familia members of “death to the Arabs,” Foreign Minister Yair Lapid stated ambiguously that “Lehava and La Familia are not Jerusalem Day.”

“The Lehava and its entourage do not deserve to carry the Israeli flag. Lehava and its entourage are a disgrace that harms the joy of the people of Israel on Jerusalem Day,” he charged.

Sources add that Blinken demanded that Abbas cooperate with Israel regarding the death of Al-Jazeera journalist Sheerin Abu Akleh who was killed during a gun battle between IDF forces and terrorists in Jenin last month.

The sources further say that Blinken demanded that Abbas not make any decision regarding severing relations with Israel before the US President Joe Biden arrives in the region in mid-July, adding that a parallel demand had been made to Israel regarding the cessation of military activity, and especially the demolition of terrorist homes.

In Ramallah, it is said that the conversation was particularly angry, during which Abbas said that he was not prepared to continue with the current situation in the absence of a Diplomatic horizon and American involvement in this matter.

The State Dept. removed Kahane Chai from its list of designated terror organizations in May saying it and several other organizations were no longer active.

World Israel News contributed to this report.

The post US to add Israeli organizations to terror list at Palestinians’ request appeared first on World Israel News.

Tehran spreads its aggression like a deadly virus to other Muslim nations.

By Khaled Abu Toameh, Gatestone Institute

Iran’s mullahs are continuing to meddle in the internal affairs of Arab countries, especially Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.

This is happening while the U.S. administration and other Western powers continue to delude themselves into thinking that appeasing Iran’s rulers and signing a new nuclear deal with them will bring security and stability to the Middle East and the rest of the world.

The goal of Iran’s mullahs is to spread their control to as many countries as possible by using their terrorist proxies, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthi militia in Yemen.

The mullahs’ efforts, however, are not limited to the use of military force and terrorism in the four Arab countries.

Iran’s rulers are also seeking to increase their political influence in these countries. They aim to turn Iran into a superpower and major player in the Middle East at a time when U.S. influence in the region appears to be dwindling.

Iran’s mullahs and their allies also want to make sure that no more Arabs or Muslims will make peace with Israel.

Needless to say, Iran’s mullahs are not only opposed to peace with Israel. They and their proxies have repeatedly stated that their real goal is to eliminate Israel.

Iraq bringing joy to Iranian leaders

Now the mullahs have every reason to be satisfied. Their effort to stop Arabs from signing peace agreements with Israel scored an achievement when Iraq’s parliament voted in favor of a law to criminalize normalization with the “Zionist entity,”punishable with a death sentence.

The law is a huge gift to Iran and its allies in Iraq. On the other hand, it is a severe blow to those Iraqis and Arabs who want to make peace with Israel but are now afraid of Iran and its puppets.

“The [Iraqi] House of Representatives voted, during its session today, on a proposed law criminalizing normalization with the Zionist entity,” the parliament’s media department said in a statement.

The new law stipulates penalties, including life or temporary imprisonment, and aims, according to its first article, to “prevent the establishment of diplomatic, political, military, economic, cultural, or any other form of relations with the Zionist entity.”

Iraq, in other words, is saying: “We will kill any Iraqi who dares to engage in any form of normalization with Israeli Jews.” This warning, of course, has brought joy to the leaders of Iran.

Unsurprisingly, Palestinians were quick to welcome the Iraqi parliament’s approval of the bill criminalizing normalization with Israel. The Palestinians have always been among the first to condemn any Arab who talks to Israel or seeks to make peace with it.

Rouhi Fattouh, head of the Palestinian National Council, the PLO’s legislative body, said in a statement that the “honorable position is not strange to Iraq, which is historically known for its political and economic support for the Palestinian people.”

Fattouh called on Arab and Islamic parliaments to follow the example of Iraq’s decision to criminalize normalization with Israel, which, he professed, practices the “most heinous crimes” against the Palestinian people and their Islamic and Christian lands and sanctities.

The Palestinian hypocrisy

It is worth noting that Fattouh is a senior official of the PLO, the organization that signed the Oslo Accords with Israel in 1993-1995. Then, the former leader of the PLO, Yasser Arafat, sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin claiming that the organization recognizes Israel’s right to exist.

Fattouh is a hypocrite: his opposition to normalization with Israel stands in sharp contrast to the Oslo Accords between the PLO and Israel.

Since signing the Oslo Accords, the PLO leaders, including Mahmoud Abbas, have been talking to and doing business with Israelis almost on a daily basis.

Iran has also praised the law, saying it was a source of pride and a sign of the “brave” positions of the Iraqi people.

Yet, while Iran and the Palestinians, including Hamas, were celebrating the new law, some Iraqi writers and journalists said that the law was counterproductive and served only Iran’s interests.

Some even warned that Iran’s real intention is to destroy and isolate Iraq.

“There is an Iranian desire to isolate Iraq from the world behind this law, which the Iraqis do not need,” wrote Iraqi author Farouk Yusef.

“Iran, not Israel, is the greatest affliction for Iraq. Iran, which did not leave a place in Iraq without interfering in it, is seeking through a scandalous law to destroy Iraq’s relations with foreign companies that will fear cooperation with a country that may at any moment put it on the list of countries that cooperate with Israel. And Iran is the only beneficiary of Iraq’s isolation from the world while it is working to develop its global relations,” he added.

Yusef said that a majority of Iraqis have realized that Iran is more dangerous to their existence than Israel. The Iraqis, he added, would have preferred to see a law criminalizing working for Iran because they do not want to end up like Lebanon, which has been destroyed by Hezbollah.

According to Yusef, Iraq is losing its sovereignty, while its politicians threaten to boycott Israel, which does not interfere in Iraq’s internal affairs. “This game is part of the Iraqi disaster,” he lamented.

Normalization wasn’t on the table anyway

Iraqi journalist Hamid Al-Kifaey also warned that the new law criminalizing normalization with Israel would isolate Iraq from the rest of the world and make it subordinate to only one country — Iran. Al-Kifaey pointed out that even Iran had in the past cooperated with Israel, bought weapons from it, and exchanged military intelligence with it throughout the period of the Iran-Iraq War:

“Iranian-Israeli cooperation was well-known, although it was not public… Anyone who reviews the records of the 1980s will learn about direct transactions between Iran and Israel, the most important of which are U.S. arms sales, which amounted to $2 billion a year.”

Al-Kifaey wrote that the time has come for the Iraqi people to take a clear position on the Iranian-affiliated political forces “that seek to mislead them, play on their feelings and tamper with their interests in the name of principles, honor, patriotism and religion.”

He noted that the issue of normalization between Iraq and Israel was anyway not on the table, which raises questions about the timing of the law:

“The issue was not raised in the first place… The forces affiliated with Iran accuse everyone who refuses to be subordinate to Iran of seeking normalization with Israel. These forces try to exploit the Iraqis’ strong feelings towards Palestine and its people.”

‘Agents of Israel’

Iraqi writer and political analyst Akeel Abbas noted that violation of the new law “can lead to the death penalty or life imprisonment without any commutation of the penalty.”

Abbas pointed out that the current version of the law could even criminalize “anyone who may read a book by an Israeli author that talks about the conflict.”

He expressed fear that the law may be used to target political opponents who have been protesting against the corruption of the ruling elite in Baghdad. The anti-corruption activists have often been accused by the government of being “agents of Israel.”

This is how Arab dictatorships regularly seek to discredit the opposition or anyone who speaks out against corruption and bad government: by accusing them of being Israeli or American spies and traitors.

Abbas complained that the law represents “an infringement on the right of the Iraqi citizen to think, read and speak ideas.”

Iran is not waiting

In another article, Abbas wrote that the law “opens a wide door to tyranny in Iraq… [and] radically and explicitly violates two of the basic principles stipulated in the Iraqi constitution, which prohibits enacting a law that contradicts the principles of democracy and basic rights and freedoms.”

Abbas also warned that the law “will do more injustice to innocent Iraqis and lead to more ethnic tension in the country.”

Legal expert Maitham Handal also expressed fear that the new law would be exploited to “muzzle freedoms” and used as a weapon against political opponents.

Iraq’s new law is yet another example of how Iran and its allies feel confident enough to continue with their malicious and expansionist schemes in the Middle East, even as the U.S. and other Western powers continue to search for ways to resume the stalled negotiations with Iran’s mullahs over reaching a new nuclear deal.

Additionally, while Russia has been losing thousands of soldiers trying to take over Ukraine, Iran, without so much as swatting a fly, has been quietly filling the void left by Russians abandoning Syria.

Iran is not waiting until it possesses nuclear weapons to proceed with its schemes. Instead, it is spreading its aggression like a deadly virus to other Muslim nations.

Or do the Biden administration and the international community secretly want the destruction of Israel and the Gulf States?

The post Iran not waiting for nuclear weapons to destabilize the Middle East appeared first on World Israel News.

Palestinian Security Services exploited loophole to legally gather intelligence from Israeli nationals.

By David Hellerman

Seeking to close a loophole, the Knesset advanced legislation last week to prohibit Israelis from having contact with the Palestinian Security Services.

The Knesset plenum gave its approval to a preliminary reading of an amendment to Israel’s Penal Code. The amendment includes the Palestinian Security Services in the Penal Code’s definition of foreign agents by changing the wording from agents from “a foreign state” to agents from a “a foreign entity.”

Israel does not recognize the Palestinian Authority as a state. However, a loophole was created by the the removal of the Palestine Liberation Organization from Israel’s list of terror organizations.

Ad Kan, a right-wing Israeli organization, first exposed that the Palestinian Security Services was exploiting this loophole to legally gather intelligence from Israeli nationals.

The bill was submitted by Likud MK Avi Dichter, who previously served as director of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and Minister of Internal Security.

“The prosecution of Israelis who cooperate or provide information to the PA or Israel’s hostile bodies hiding behind a European or international screen is not a matter of left or right, but a national matter that must be uprooted,” Dichter said.

The bill has more legislative hurdles to clear before becoming law.

The post Knesset advances bill to ban Israelis from contacting Palestinian Security Services appeared first on World Israel News.