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** Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas Tells the UN: Reforms Are Complete. The Evidence Says Otherwise ([link removed])
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by Khaled Abu Toameh • September 28, 2026 at 5:00 am
* In a pre-recorded speech played at the United Nations General Assembly on September 24, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas presented an extraordinarily positive picture of the reforms he claims his government has carried out. According to Abbas, the PA has fulfilled the commitments it made to the international community.
* Last year alone, the United States determined that these payments ["Pay-for-Slay" rewards to the families of terrorists and "martyrs"] had amounted to $156 million — including to 5,000 families in Lebanon — much of which was 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 US, 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, "the 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 2025, the European Commission also acknowledged its assessment that payments and benefits to terrorists and their families were continuing.
* 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 international standards and in cooperation with UNESCO.
* The findings of IMPACT-se's report on the PA curriculum tell a very different story: "Our comprehensive review of the Palestinian Authority's 2025–26 national school curriculum, analyzes 290 textbooks and 71 teacher guides used in West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem schools (including UNRWA). The study finds the materials 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 also found textbooks and teacher guides that continue to present armed struggle and violent figures in a positive light.
* 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.
Pictured: A pre-recorded speech by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is played at the 81st UN General Assembly in New York, on September 24, 2026. (Photo by Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images)
In a pre-recorded speech played at the United Nations General Assembly on September 24, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas presented an extraordinarily positive picture of the reforms he claims his government has carried out. According to Abbas, the PA 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."
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