Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas promotes terrorism and can therefore play no role in governing Gaza after the war against Hamas, Israeli Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Eli Cohen told JNS on Friday.

“It’s time for the hypocrite Abu Mazen [Abbas] to stop paying salaries to murderers of Jews and to end the incitement in his education system. The Palestinian Authority, which encourages terrorism, is part of the problem and cannot be the solution for Gaza the day after,” said Cohen, who served as foreign minister during the first half of the war that began on Oct. 7, 2023.

Cohen is scheduled to address the inaugural JNS International Policy Summit at Jerusalem’s Waldorff Astoria hotel on Monday afternoon.

Knesset member Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionism) criticized the P.A. on Sunday, calling it a terrorist organization that operates no differently from Hamas.

“I try not to be too involved in the affairs of the terrorist organization that people mistakenly call the Palestinian Authority and how it conducts its business,” Rothman told JNS at the JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem. “They support terror, they teach children to murder Jews, and they are as committed to the destruction of Israel as Hamas—and we see this in every action they take.”

Rothman said recent changes in Palestinian Authority leadership are meaningless.

“The fact that they appointed a new deputy prime minister or deputy president does not really matter,” he said. “Thank God, we are seeing that the United States has understood that UNRWA is not a humanitarian organization but rather a terrorist organization, and I hope more and more people will realize that the Palestinian Authority is the same—a terror organization. They wear suits, but they are just as much terrorists as Hamas.”

Image -  Yossi Aloni/Flash90