By Gatestone Institute | Created at 2026-09-27 20:55:14 | Updated at 2026-09-27 22:07:32
1 hour ago
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly on September 24, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas presented an extraordinarily positive picture of the reforms he claims his government has carried out. According to Abbas, the Palestinian Authority has fulfilled the commitments it made to the international community.
"We have completed the national reform program to which we committed ourselves before our people and the international community," Abbas announced. He went on to say that the Palestinian leadership had "strengthened institutional governance, public financial management, transparency, accountability, the fight against corruption, and the rule of law."
Abbas also claimed that his government had established a "unified national system of social protection and welfare based on need," continued reforming the education system "in accordance with international standards," and was advancing "democratic renewal and the empowerment of women and young people."
He further told the international community that the Palestinians reject terrorism and extremism, combat antisemitism and hatred, and seek a democratic Palestinian state based on the rule of law and human rights.
Abbas's reference to a new, needs-based welfare system is directly connected to his claim that the old system known as "Pay-for-Slay," of paying millions of dollars annually to the families of prisoners and "martyrs" who have killed Jews — had been replaced. Last year alone, the United States determined that these payments had amounted to $156 million — including to 5,000 families in Lebanon — much of which enabled, fungibly, from the European Union.
The US State Department, however, had reached a very different conclusion from that of Abbas. In a September 16, 2026 statement, the State Department said that the Palestinian Authority was "continuing to pay stipends to terrorists and to glorify acts of terrorism and terrorists in public pronouncements and school textbooks." The Palestinian Authority, the State Department added, had once again failed to live up to its commitments to the United States, including its commitment concerning terrorism and reform.
Last April, the State Department had already been even more explicit in a report to Congress. The report noted that despite changing the mechanism and ostensibly replacing the old system of paying prisoners with a new system supposedly based on welfare needs. "[T]he Palestinian Authority continues to provide a system of compensation in support of terrorism through new mechanisms and under a different name." The report concluded that changing the mechanism did not amount to ending the payments.
In November of 2025, the European Union Commission also acknowledged its assessment that payments and benefits to terrorists and their families were continuing: "We understand that a recent payment has been made to the families of prisoners, based on a previous scheme. We profoundly regret this decision, as this seems to go against prior announcements."
Other reports published by Palestinian and international organizations also paint a substantially different picture than the one Abbas presented in his speech.
What did the international community demand from the Palestinian Authority?
The New York Declaration, adopted in 2025, did not merely call for Palestinian statehood. It explicitly linked international support for a future Palestinian state to reforms in Palestinian governance. The declaration called for the Palestinian Authority to continue implementing a "credible reform agenda," with emphasis on good governance, transparency, fiscal sustainability, combating incitement and hate speech, public services and economic development.
A report by the Palestinian human rights organization Lawyers for Justice, which examined the Palestinian Authority from within Palestinian society, also provided powerful information.
Such organizations are not able to operate without grim consequences.
Mohannad Karajah, the director of Lawyers for Justice, has himself been repeatedly targeted and harassed by the Palestinian Authority. In October 2025, the Council of Bars and Law Societies (CCBE) expressed concern over Karajah's arrest by the Palestinian Authority. The CCBE said the arrest came amid an incitement campaign based on fabricated social-media posts attributed to Karajah and his organization. Karajah was arrested on October 26, 2025 and released several hours later after interrogation.
"The CCBE is concerned that such a pattern of harassment, defamation, and threats against Lawyers for Justice and lawyer Mohannad Karajah appears aimed at silencing a human rights legal organization and intimidating itself which would undermine the exercise of the legal profession and the protection of fundamental rights," the CCBE said in a letter to Mahmoud Abbas.
Key findings of the Palestinian report regarding human rights violations and structural governance issues inside the Palestinian Authority include :
Inaction of the Public Prosecutor and Lack of Accountability: The primary thesis of the report highlights how formal complaints detailing arbitrary detention, torture, and ill-treatment filed with the Attorney General and Public Prosecutor's Office remain systematically unaddressed, entrenching a culture of impunity.
Arbitrary Arrests and Fabricated Charges: In 2025, the organization documented 219 cases in total, with 164 cases referred to, and prosecuted by courts in the West
Bank. Detainees – primarily journalists, teachers, union workers, human rights defenders, and university students – were routinely subjected to arbitrary arrests without judicial warrants or explanation of charges. Palestinian Authority security forces consistently leveled generalized, politically motivated charges such as "inciting sectarian strife," "defaming authorities," "possessing weapons," and "collecting illicit funds" without sufficient legal or factual evidence.
Widespread Ill-Treatment and Torture: The report documented 26 cases of physical torture in detention centers and 146 cases of ill-treatment, including severe beatings, forced stress positions, verbal abuse, humiliating searches, and denial of medical care.
Suppression of Public Freedoms and Civic Activism: Journalists covering events that diverged from official narratives were threatened, harassed, and had their equipment confiscated. Peaceful rallies and protests were forcibly dispersed using disproportionate physical force that include severe beatings with batons.
Institutional Failure and Lack of Reforms: Despite the "State of Palestine" acceding to the International Convention Against Torture, the report emphasizes a severe gap between legal commitments on paper and real-world executive and security practices. Executive authorities, presidential decrees and security apparatuses routinely bypass constitutional guarantees outlined in the Palestinian Basic Law, undermining judicial oversight and fair trial guarantees.
This raises the obvious question: If accountability and rule of law have been strengthened to the degree Abbas claims, why are Palestinian human-rights organizations still documenting such cases?
The contradiction becomes even more disturbing when it comes to education.
Abbas told the UN that the Palestinian Authority has continued reforming its education system in accordance with in international standards and in cooperation with UNESCO.
The findings of IMPACT-se's comprehensive review of the 2025-2026 Palestinian Authority curriculum tell a very different story. The organization examined 290 textbooks and 71 teacher guides and found that the curriculum remained "substantively unchanged from prior editions and documented recurring patterns across subjects: promotion of jihad and martyrdom, glorification of terrorism, incitement of antisemitism, rejection of peacemaking and the two-state solution, and erasure of Israel from maps."
IMPACT-se found textbooks and teacher guides that continue to present armed struggle and violent figures in a positive light. For example, it documented a Grade 5 Arabic-language textbook presenting Dalal al-Mughrabi, who participated in the 1978 Coastal Road terrorist attack in which Israeli civilians were killed, as a heroic figure. The report also identified a Grade 12 Islamic Education textbook that portrays Jews as "liars and manipulators" in a historical narrative and warns of the danger of their supposed "seduction."
Abbas's September 24 speech raises a fundamental question for the international community: Should Palestinian Authority reforms be judged by what Abbas says from the podium at the UN, or by what is actually happening on the ground? The evidence presented by the US State Department, the European Union, Lawyers for Justice, and IMPACT-se points to a substantial gap between the Palestinian Authority's promises and its record.
If the international community is serious about bringing democracy and accountability to the Palestinians, it should demand verifiable reforms rather than accept declarations of success.
