Fatah denies claim Abbas snubbed Republican lawmakers

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas did not snub a visiting delegation of Republican members of the US Congress, Fatah spokesman Osama Qawasma says.

Qawasma makes the comment after the Jewish Insider reported yesterday that Abbas did not show up to a scheduled meeting with the Republican lawmakers, instead dispatching PA Prime Minister Moahmmad Shtayyeh and senior Palestine Liberation Organization official Saeb Erekat to meet with the group.

“The Republican congressional delegation was informed five days ago that the president would not be able to meet due to personal and family matters related to the Eid al-Adha holiday,” Qawasma, who attended the meeting with the Republicans, tells The Times of Israel.

“President Abbas will meet the Republicans next time and he is just as interested in meeting with them as he is meeting with the Democrats. I repeat that he was not able to meet for personal, not political, reasons,” he adds, noting that the PA president ordered Shtayyeh and Erekat to meet with the Republicans on his behalf.

Asked how Abbas was able to meet members of the Democratic Camp party on Tuesday but not the Republicans, Qawasma insists that “the two are not connected. He would have met them, if his schedule permitted him to do so. Unfortunately, with his holiday engagements, it did not work out this time,” he says.

Abbas met with Democratic Camp candidates Issawi Frej and Noa Rothman on Tuesday at his office in Ramallah.

A source familiar with the details of the Republican delegation’s trip confirms that trip organizers were informed several days ago that Abbas would not be able to meet.

The 31 Republican lawmakers, including House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, arrived in Israel late last week as part of a trip organized by the American Israel Education Foundation, a group connected to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a Washington-based, non-governmental organization that works to strengthen ties between the US and Israel.

Last week, 41 Democratic lawmakers arrived in Israel as a part of a largely separate trip put together by the American Israel Education Foundation. On August 7, they met Abbas and several other high-ranking Palestinian officials.

— Adam Rasgon