Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is leading new reforms

Cliff Notes – President Mahmoud Abbas is leading new reforms

• Appointment of Vice President: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has named Hussein al-Sheikh as the new vice president of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), positioning him as a potential successor to the 89-year-old leader.

• Political Dynamics and Popularity: Despite holding a key leadership role, al-Sheikh faces significant unpopularity among the Palestinian population, because he wants to end the voilence

• Pressure for Reform and Unity: Abbas’s administration is under pressure from Western and Arab allies to enact reforms and denounce Hamas, and in doing so unify the Palestinian leadership, especially in the wake of ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is leading new reforms and has appointed a new deputy in a major step in naming a successor

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speaks during a conference at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, Feb. 12, 2023

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday named a veteran aide and long term  confidant as his new vice president. It’s a major step by the aging leader to designate a successor.

The appointment of Hussein al-Sheikh as vice president of the Palestine Liberation Organization does not guarantee he will be the next Palestinian president. But it makes him the front-runner among longtime politicians in the dominant Fatah party who hope to succeed the 89-year-old Abbas.

The move is unlikely to boost the image among many Palestinians of Fatah as a closed and corrupt movement out of touch with the general public.

Democratic procedure in Palestine 

Abbas hopes to play a major role in postwar Gaza. This weekend Norway became the first European country to recognise Palestine as a State and hopes of building a future for the Palestinians is sparkling.

He has been under pressure from Western and Arab allies to rehabilitate the Palestinian Authority, which has limited autonomy in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. This is to aide the potential of a two-state solution. Behind the scenes Westerners who dangling the carrot with the potential of reigning in the Israeli army from Gaza. He has announced a series of reforms in recent months, and last week his Fatah movement approved the new position of PLO vice president.

The PLO is the internationally recognised representative of the Palestinian people and oversees the Western-backed Palestinian Authority. Abbas has led both entities for two decades.

Under last week’s decision, the new vice president, coming from the PLO’s 16-member executive committee, would succeed Abbas in a caretaker capacity if the president dies or becomes incapacitated.

That would make him the front-runner to replace Abbas on a permanent basis, though not guarantee it. The PLO’s executive committee would need to approve that appointment, and the body is filled with veteran politicians who see themselves as worthy contenders.

Palestinian Elections in 90 days

The Palestinian Authority, meanwhile, would have a separate caretaker leader, Rawhi Fattouh, the speaker of the Palestinians’ non-functioning parliament. But within 90 days, it would have to hold elections. If that is not possible, the new PLO president would likely take over the position.

Al-Sheikh, 64, is a veteran politician who has held a series of top positions over decades, most recently as the secretary-general of the PLO’s executive committee for the past three years. He spent 11 years in Israeli prisons in his youth and is a veteran of the Palestinian security forces — experiences that could give him credibility with Palestinian security figures and the broader public.

Now he finds himself in a strong position to shore up his power. The power dynamics in Gaza and the West Bank are controlled by Israel; It was Israel who supported Hamas for its election to prevent a single Palestinian entity controlling the West Bank and Gaza. 

Hamas won the first elections the people of Gaza in 2006. At the time it was the under dog and they rode the way of populist opinion, being anti-occupation and fighting for freedom, which was an anti-Israeli stance. In contrast to the PA more programmatic approach to a two-state solution.

Over the years, the mood in Gaza has changed with more and more Palestinians preferring to have a unifying authority over Gaza and the West Bank that could lead people to Palestinian Statehood. That would be too powerful for Israel to control. And this has been demonstrated since the conflict has begun, in order for the Palestinian Authority to stay in power they must denounce Hamas, otherwise Israel and The United States won’t negotiate with them.

Not the most popular but a potential deal maker

He is Abbas’ closest aide and, most critically, maintains good working relations with Israel and the Palestinians’ Arab allies, including wealthy Gulf countries. As Abbas’ point man with Israel, al-Sheikh is responsible for arranging coveted travel permits for Palestinians, including VIP leaders, giving him an important lever of power over his rivals.

However, polls show al-Sheikh, like most of Fatah’s leadership, to be deeply unpopular with the general public. This week’s decision behind closed doors by the PLO’s aging leadership is likely to reinforce its image as being stodgy and out of touch.

In a 2022 interview with The Associated Press, al-Sheikh defended his unpopular coordination with Israel, saying there was no choice under the difficult circumstances of the illegal occupation.

“I am not a representative for Israel in the Palestinian territories,” he said at the time. “We undertake the coordination because this is the prelude to a political solution for ending the occupation.”

Who is the most popular Palestinian leader?

The most popular Palestinian, Marwan Barghouti, is serving multiple life sentences in an Israeli prison. He Often described by Palestinians as the Palestinian Mandela.

Israel has ruled out releasing him as part of any swap for Israeli hostages held in Gaza by Hamas. Although, an Inter-Parliamentary Union report, considered the most detailed independent review of the trial, found that Barghouti was not given a fair trial and questioned the quality of the evidence.

Since October 2023, he has had been denied visits from his family and been severely beaten several times, leading to persistent damage to his health, according to his lawyer.

Israel’s genocide in Gaza drags on

As Israel’s genocide in Gaza drags on, with talk by U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of uprooting Palestinians in Gaza to relocate them elsewhere, al-Sheikh will be under mounting pressure to unite the Palestinian leadership.

The PLO is a rival for Hamas, which won the last national elections in 2006 and is not in the PLO. Hamas has control of Gaza, aided by Israel, they took it from Abbas’ forces in 2007, and reconciliation attempts have repeatedly failed.

Negotiating with enemy is the challenge

Abbas is still seen internationally as the leader of the Palestinians and a partner in any effort to revive the peace process, which ground to a halt when Netanyahu returned to office in 2009. 

The problem all these leaders have, they have to balance the thousands of deaths, often of their loved ones and rally the Palestinians towards a solution that stops the killing. But emotionally, that can be a challenge as almost every Palestinian has suffered undignified horrors at the hands of the Israeli army. That includes the PLO, Fateh and Hamas.