BICOM

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met yesterday with Amna Muna, a Palestinian terrorist freed in the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange, who was responsible for the murder of an Israeli teenager. Muna used offers of romance via the Internet to lure 16-year old Ophir Rahum to Ramallah in 2001, where Palestinians subsequently murdered him. Muna was serving a life sentence. She now lives in Turkey, as Israel did not permit her return to the West Bank. Abbas also met in Turkey with ten other former prisoners, released and exiled as part of the deal that freed Gilad Shalit in October.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesperson Mark Regev said Israel was “disappointed” by Abbas’ “unfortunate decision” to meet the released prisoners. “Instead of promoting peace and reconciliation, the Palestinian leadership seems to be putting extremist murderers up on a pedestal. This raises serious questions as to their commitment and as to their desire to end the conflict,” Regev said.

In a separate development, late Wednesday evening, Abbas met in Cairo with Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal, to discuss Palestinian reunification and holding elections. It was the two leaders’ second meeting in a month. Abbas is expected to chair a meeting of all Palestinian factions on Thursday on the issue of including Hamas and other factions in the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), which is the official international representative of the Palestinian people.