Abbas was hosting a two-day "Freedom and Dignity" conference in Ramallah to mark the 11th anniversary of Israel's arrest of Marwan Barghouti, a senior member of Abbas' own Fatah party who was convicted of directing numerous terrorist attacks against Israelis.

Polls show that a vast majority of Palestinians want to elect Barghouti as their president, if he is every freed by Israel.

At the event, Abbas declared that whether or not Israel frees the thousands of jailed Palestinian terrorists will determine its true commitment to peace.

Many of the Palestinians jailed by Israel took part in attacks that killed innocent Jewish men, women and children. And most of the rest were captured while trying to do so.

According to Abbas, these killers and would-be killers must not be held accountable for their crimes. After all, they were only trying to kill Jews.

Even more shocking than Abbas' position on this matter is the support it receives from America and Europe.

The Freedom and Dignity conference was graced by the presence of Isabelle Durant, vice president of the European Parliament, who Palestinian media reported is making "immense efforts" to win the freedom of the jailed terrorists.

Durant read a speech on behalf of the European Parliament president, Martin Schulz, who charged Israel with committing a human rights violation by imprisoning Palestinians who kill or try to kill Jews.

Former US President Jimmy Carter send a videotaped speech in which he stressed that setting the Palestinian terrorists free is a necessary condition for peace.