While major news outlets have incessantly been covering the Palestinians’ purported lack of access to COVID-19 vaccines, a narrative that HonestReporting has debunked, one story isn’t being told: the Palestinian people’s predicament is a result of their government’s inefficiency, despotism, and corruption.
News reports most often portray Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as a moderate, at least in comparison to the Hamas terrorist group, for example, which rules the Gaza Strip. What goes largely unmentioned is the number of times Abbas has promised to hold elections, only to use some pretext or other to postpone such an eventuality.
Accordingly, Abbas this week enters the 17th year of what was meant to be a four-year mandate.
In addition, the arbitrary arrests and torture endured by people living under Abbas’ rule, his long dalliance with antisemitism, and consistent rejection of coexistence with Israel are rarely deemed newsworthy.
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Democracy Now? Abbas Election Approved By Former Heads of State
The last Palestinian presidential election took place in the wake of Yasser Arafat’s death on November 11, 2004. Mahmoud Abbas was elected on January 9, 2005 following what was viewed as a fair and free election, approved by hundreds of international observers led by former US president Jimmy Carter and former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt.
But even though Abbas’ victory was hailed by many as a positive step toward a democratic system, for the most part this has proved illusory.
Under Abbas’s rule, the PA has arrested people for posting on Facebook, blogging, and demonstrating against the government in Ramallah. Between January 2017 and August 2018, PA security forces held 221 Palestinians in administrative detention without charge.
Though major news outlets give Abbas’ growing authoritarianism short shrift, in ongoing opinion polls approximately 65 percent of Palestinians want him to resign.
Media Myth: Abbas the Peacemaker
Mahmoud Abbas is often depicted as Israel’s best option for achieving a just and lasting peace with the Palestinians. But his Palestinian Authority incentivizes the murder of Jews. The PA’s “pay-for-slay” scheme provides “salaries” to those who commit violence against Jews and Israelis, with more money being doled out to terrorists who shed the most blood.
Related Reading: Palestinian Terror Payments: “Pay-For-Slay”
Despite this reality, a CNN fact sheet about Abbas mentions the “PLO” {Palestine Liberation Organization} 11 times and his ruling “Fatah” faction three times, but fails to note that both were heavily involved in terrorist activities over the years.
Abbas has hailed terrorists as heroes, and routinely named schools and public squares after them. Meanwhile, PA-produced television programs brainwash young Palestinians to follow in the bloody footsteps of terrorists.
With regards to negotiations, Abbas rejected an Israeli offer for Palestinian statehood in 2008, and effectively shunned US initiatives to restart peace talks in 2014 and 2016. The latter happened during the Obama administration, which was widely viewed as sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.
More recently, the PA refused the Trump Administration’s efforts to involve it in the peace process.
Meanwhile, the difference between Abbas’ Fatah party and Hamas, a US-designated terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel, is seemingly more stylistic than substantive. Abbas has repeatedly attempted to reconcile with Gaza’s iron-fisted rulers and often makes common cause with them:
What do you mean by “ideology”? If you are referring to religious ideology – we are all Muslims, we are all believers. If you are referring to political ideology – let me tell you in all honesty, there are no disagreements between us.
Media’s Cover-Up of PA Corruption?
In June 2020, Yasser Jadallah, former director of the PA’s Political Department, went public with what he knew about the theft of funds from international organizations.
According to Jadallah, tens of billions of dollars of aid sent by the European Union and Arab countries were transferred to secret accounts known to only three people: Chairman of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas, his private secretary Intesar Abu Amara, and Mahmoud Salameh, deputy chief of staff in the PA Chairman’s Office.
Though Yasser Jadallah’s video was widely circulated and sparked considerable interest in the Middle East, major news outlets mainly chose to not cover this story.
Abbas’ Legacy of Hate: ‘Palestine’ is One of the World’s Most Antisemitic Places
Another troubling aspect of the Jewish state’s ostensible peace partner is his history of what has been construed as antisemitism. Among many statements over the years, Abbas has accused rabbis of wanting to poison Palestinian water wells, and claimed that Jews fabricated their ancient connection to Israel.
In 2018, the leader of the Palestinian people was called out for his rampant Judeophobia, forcing him to apologize for remarks made during a speech in which he claimed that the Holocaust was caused not by antisemitism, but by a reaction to the financial activities of European Jews.
It is not surprising, then, that the Anti-Defamation League found that Palestinians in the West Bank, on the whole, are one the most antisemitic in the world, with more than 90 percent harboring racist attitudes toward Jews.
Media’s Selectively Low Expectations
The PA was created in 1994 as a result of the Oslo Accords in return for the promise that it would renounce terrorism and pledge to resolve outstanding issues with Israel via bilateral negotiations. Instead, Abbas’ Palestinian Authority has continued to support terror attacks against the Jewish state. The PA has also used levers of power to stamp out internal dissent, even though it was created with a view to becoming a Middle East democracy.
By glossing over Abbas’ reign, news organizations are violating the journalistic credo to seek out and report the unvarnished truth wherever it may lead – even if the findings do not conform to prevailing narratives.
