This admission by Central Committee member and Commissioner for Arab and China Relations Abbas Zaki goes even beyond the glorification of the attack by different PLO factions, including Abbas’ Fatah Movement immediately after the attack. Palestinian Media Watch reported at the time that Abbas’ forced condemnation was insincere. Zaki’s statement reconfirms PMW’s report.

In addition to the admission of responsibility for calling for terror by the Fatah leader at an event in Jenin to honor terrorists, the moderator praised the murderer from Tel Aviv as “the heroic Martyrdom-seeker Ra’ad Fathi Zidan Hazem, who shook Tel Aviv.” Zaki then praised terrorist Al-Sa’adi as “the heroic Martyr” and Ra’ad Hazem, who murdered the 3 civilians, as “true thunder, a legend, and a man worth 1,000 men,” who “imposed fear inside Israel.”

Zaki explained that their attacks were “the clearest way” to “implement” decisions made by Fatah and the PA leadership on a meeting on Feb. 7, 2022. PMW has shown that in meetings that day, the PA leadership called for more “popular resistance” – a PA euphemism for terror attacks like shootings, stabbings, and car rammings:

“The main topic of the [PLO] Central Council meeting yesterday was popular resistance. All the sessions, meetings, and conferences, whether of the Fatah Movement or of the other factions, and also His Honor President [Abbas called] in all his speeches to initiate popular resistance.”

[Official PA TV, Feb. 8, 2022]

Clearly, senior Fatah official Zaki was referring to these meetings and the “decisions” made there or at others like them, when he stated that the murder of 3 Israelis were the “implementation” and “translation” of the leadership’s decisions:

“You, the people of Jenin, are in practice, in the clearest way, implementing the [Fatah] Central Committee’s decisions and the Palestinian people’s consensus on Feb. 7 [2022] about cutting off the ties with Israel, cancelling the recognition of Israel, pursuing the settlers, and about standing proudly to let the world hear that the Palestinian will not surrender or kneel, and the people of Jenin are translating the Palestinian leadership’s decisions [into action].”