Last week, in a meeting with Xi Jinping, the Chinese president and head of the ruling Communist Party, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas endorsed Beijing’s genocidal campaign against the Muslim Uyghur minority, a stance that’s so hypocritical, it’s almost comical.

Abbas’s alignment with Beijing on this issue raises critical questions about the motives and principles of the Palestinian Authority. How can it claim the mantle of human rights while simultaneously supporting the suppression of another Islamic minority group? Are the Uyghurs’ rights any less significant than those of Palestinians?

The statement made by Abbas and Xi, dismissing the issue of Xinjiang as having “nothing to do with human rights,” belies the eyewitness testimony of what’s happening on the ground in Xinjiang. Numerous independent reports have confirmed the detention of over a million Uyghur Muslims in the so-called “re-education camps.” These centers, more akin to prisons, are described by many as the site of forced assimilation, designed to wipe out Uyghur cultural and religious identity. The endorsement of these measures shows an alarming disregard for the fundamental rights of human beings.

Maybe before casting aspersions on the Israeli government’s human-rights record, the Palestinian Authority should consider its own.