Ministry for Diaspora Affairs | October 2024

PA Senior Officials: 11 In 2023, the PA Chairman, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), held two events honoring the children of martyrs and prisoners at the Presidential Headquarters in Ramallah: On July 1, the “Mahmoud Abbas Foundation” 115 held a festival for the children of prisoners at the Presidential Headquarters in the presence of Mahmoud Abbas himself. 116 On April 23, the Mahmoud Abbas Foundation organized a festival for the children of martyrs at the Presidential Headquarters, with Mahmoud Abbas in attendance. The event was broadcast to Gaza.

12 One of the highest-ranking positions among Palestinians is governor, most of whom are members of Fatah and considered close to the PA Chairman, Abu Mazen. In October 2023, eight new governors were appointed. The governor of the Jericho district, Hussein Hamayel, who previously served as a spokesperson for Fatah, has, since his appointment, written praise for terrorists killed by Israel on his Facebook profile and referred to past attacks as the correct path. On 5/3/2024, Hamayel posted on Facebook 119 on the anniversary of the killing of Ma’an Abu Hallaweh, a senior member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades and an associate of Marwan Barghouti, involved in planning and carrying out numerous terror attacks. 120 That day, Hamayel also marked the 49th anniversary of the Savoy Hotel attack in Tel Aviv and wrote, “From Faridoun to Savoy.” 121 , 122

Among the martyrs whose families were invited to the festival were the terrorist Hamdi Abu Diya, a released prisoner and officer in the Palestinian security forces who opened fire on Israeli soldiers in 2023, 117 and Mohammad al-Trifi, who belonged to the Islamic Jihad Movement and was shot by a sniper during clashes in Ramallah in 2014. 118

115 https://www.maf.ps/en 116 https://www.wafa.ps/pages/details/73998 117 https//:www.kan.org.il/content/kan-news/defense/243151/ 118 الشهداء أبناء مهرجان تقيم عباس محمود مؤسسة .. الرئيس السيد بحضور (youtube.com) 119 https://did.li/JsOTY 120 Judgment – State of Israel v. Marwan Barghouti, 2002 https://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-1735928,00.html 121 https://did.li/b7TCN

122 Taba ḥ Fard ā n’ is the Arabic name for Operation ‘Spring of Youth,’ during which three senior Fatah members and about 100 members of the organization in Lebanon were eliminated. The attack on the Savoy Hotel was carried out by eight Fatah operatives, resulting in the murder of 7 foreign civilians, one Israeli citizen, and three IDF soldiers.

55