Thousands of PA Arab gathered in Ramallah last week calling to "liberate of Palestine from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea" and for the replacement of Israel with an Islamic Caliphate.

The rally was held with the permission of the Palestinian Authority leadership – even as PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas prepares for his visit in Washington next week where he will tell US President Donald Trump that he is committted to a "comprehensive and just peace" with Israel.

The PA's representative in Washington, Hossam Zamelt, said that Abbas will meet with Trump in the context of "his commitment to a just and comprehensive peace that achieves the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people."

That's not the picture being painted back home in Ramallah, however. Muslim Arab researcher and writer Bassam Tawil writes that Abbas himself approved the rally, which was organized by a movement that opposes Israel's very right to exist, supports Sharia law states, and seeks the establishment of an Islamic caliphate. The movement, Hizb ut Tahrir, is also opposed to Abbas' policies, but Abbas is assumed to have political motives in allowing them to protest in such force.

The Hizb ut Tahrir rally was organized to mark the 93rd anniversary of Turkey's abolition of the Islamic Caliphate in 1924.

In an article for the Washington-based Gatestone Institute, Tawil describes the rally: "One after the other, leaders of Hizb ut Tahrir stood up in Ramallah… to proclaim the need to 'liberate all Palestine' and to restore the Islamic Caliphate. Dr. Maher Ja'bari, a Hizb ut Tahrir leader, said, 'The Islamic Caliphate will be restored only when Palestine is fully liberated… The issue of the caliphate has united the [Islamic] nation and it is the basic case for the liberation of Palestine and the implementation of Sharia for all Muslims under one [Muslim] ruler.'"

Tawil adds that the annual Hizb ut Tahrir rally, "which draws thousands of Palestinians, is yet another reminder of the growing influence of radical Islamic groups among Palestinians. In many ways, it is hard to tell the difference between Hamas, ISIS, Islamic Jihad and Hizb ut Tahrir. They all share the same goal: the elimination of Israel and the establishment of an Islamic regime where non-Muslims (dhmmis) would live as minorities and pay jizya, the tax levied by Islamic states on non-Muslims residing in Muslim countries."

Clearly rallies of this type in downtown Ramallah only help raise another generation to glorify jihad and hate Israel, Tawil writes, and concludes, "Abbas' claim that he seeks a just and comprehensive peace with Israel is refuted by fact after fact on the ground."