Abbas Wants White House to Stop Calling PLO a Terror Group

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called on the Biden administration to revoke a 1987 law that labels the Palestine Liberation Organization a terror group. Abbas made the call to rescind the 1987 Anti-Terrorism Act during a video address to the annual J Street Conference, a left-wing and pro-Israel organization.

Previous administrations had waived the act and maintained ties between the US and the PLO. But the administration of former President Donald Trump closed the the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s mission in Washington in 2018, and closed the US consulate in Jerusalem that had served the Palestinians, merging it into the new US embassy in the city.

Abbas called on J Street to encourage the Biden administration to revoke laws that prevent US financial support to the PA.

He said the Palestinians were ready to resume peace negotiations with Israel under the auspices of the Middle East Quartet, and that he supports a two-state solution based on the pre-1967 borders of Israel. He said that a single state for Israelis and Palestinians would be an “apartheid state” that would “perpetuate the conflict.”