Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has failed to take action after a bipartisan collation of lawmakers called on him earlier this month to fire a senior official who honored a Palestinian terrorist for murdering an Israeli civilian.
Abu al-Einein, a former Abbas adviser who currently heads the Palestinian Council for NGO Affairs, was caught on film praising the Palestinian who stabbed an Israeli father of five to death while he was waiting for a ride home.
"We salute the heroic fighter ... [who] went against the settler and killed him. Blessings to the breast that nursed [murderer Salam al-Zaghal]," al-Einein was recorded as saying at an official Palestinian government celebration on April 30.
Al-Einein’s comments led a coalition of five top House lawmakers to demand that he resign his post for inciting and promoting intolerance against Israelis.
"Allowing this type of incitement and hatemongering to take place within your ranks is intolerable if you are truly dedicated to non-violence," the lawmakers wrote to Abbas in a letter dated May 15 and published on Monday by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), the Israeli organization that documented al-Einein’s remarks.
The letter was signed by House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Ed Royce (R., Calif.) and its ranking member Eliot Engel (D., N.Y.), House Middle East Subcommittee member Ted Deutch (D., Fla.), Rep. Nita Lowey (D., N.Y.), and Rep. Brad Sherman (D., Calif.).
"We ask that you publically and officially denounce and condemn Mr. al-Einein’s remarks at once and remove him from his position in your government," wrote the lawmakers.
The signatories criticized Abbas for rejecting violence during meetings with American officials and promoting terrorism during various Palestinian events.
Abbas has neither responded to the letter nor taken any action against al-Einein in the weeks since the lawmakers sent their letter, according to PMW.
"There has been no announcement in the PA media of any steps taken by Abbas to ‘denounce and condemn’ Abu al-Einein's statements, nor that Abbas has removed him ‘from his position,’" PMW reported on Monday.
The members of Congress "also request that [Abbas’s political party] Fatah immediately remove its Facebook page glorifying this murder."
Fatah’s Facebook page praised terrorist al-Zaghal as a "hero" Just hours after he killed Israeli Evyatar Borovsky.
While Fatah has since deleted the praise without further comment, the terrorist’s picture remains, as do other posts celebrating terrorists, according to PMW.
"Fatah has removed from its Facebook page the two pictures of the murderer and deleted its praise of the terrorist as ‘hero’ from the Israeli victim's photo," PMW reported.
"The text now only reads: ‘A picture of the settler who was killed today at the Al-Za'atara military checkpoint, in south Nablus,’" according to PMW. "Despite these cosmetic changes, Fatah's Facebook page still features many expressions of terror glorification and praise of murderers."
Fatah had praised the activities of other Palestinian terrorists as recently as last month.
Fatah’s Facebook page honored two terrorists as "heroes" and "martyrs" on the anniversary of a suicide bombing that killed seven, according to PMW.
Abbas’s political party additionally referred to a female suicide bomber as a "bride of Palestine" early in April.
"We are committed to your promise. We are committed to the promise of freedom, oh Bride of Palestine," the Facebook page declared, according to PMW.
Multiple other examples of this type of behavior abound, according to PMW and other sources.
Abbas declared on Sunday that the Palestinian Authority and other official institutions do not preach hate or incitement.
"We don't teach and we don't educate our children to hate or even discriminate against any religion, be it Judaism or any other," Abbas said at the World Economic Forum in Jordan. "We strive to spread the culture of peace among our people."
However, PA television routinely indoctrinates children to hate Jews and Israelis and praises terrorism.
One children’s television show that aired on a Fatah station on March 22 declared: "From between the whistles of the bullets I sing: 'Long live the nation of Fatah and Yasser Arafat.'"