Palestinian leaders within the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution met this week for the primary gathering of its sort in years. Their mission: to permit Mahmoud Abbas, the getting older Palestinian Authority president, to nominate a longtime loyalist to a newly-minted senior place.
On Saturday evening, Mr. Abbas formally named Hussein al-Sheikh, a detailed confidant, as his deputy. Some analysts believed Mr. al-Sheikh’s promotion indicated that Mr. Abbas, 89, was signaling that Mr. al-Sheikh was his most well-liked inheritor, whereas others noticed it as a beauty reshuffle to placate Arab officers pissed off by the Palestinian chief.
For a lot of Palestinians, their management’s concentrate on palace politics because the warfare in Gaza has raged, and a sweeping Israeli navy operation within the northern West Financial institution has displaced tens of 1000’s of individuals, has additional underscored the complacency of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.
“The ship is sinking, and everybody’s preventing over who’s going to be seated at what desk,” mentioned Ghaith al-Omari, a former adviser to Mr. Abbas and a senior fellow on the Washington Institute for Close to East Coverage, a analysis group.
Greater than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s marketing campaign towards Hamas in Gaza, based on native well being officers, who don’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. The warfare started with Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, assault on southern Israel, which killed about 1,200 folks and took roughly 250 hostage.
The warfare forged a highlight on the Palestinian trigger and spurred worldwide protests. However the frail and internally divided Palestinian Authority — the Palestinians’ internationally acknowledged consultant — has struggled for relevance.
In an hourlong speech on Wednesday addressing the convention, Mr. Abbas principally reiterated acquainted speaking factors condemning Israel’s marketing campaign in Gaza. He additionally denounced his Hamas rivals, calling them “sons of canines” and demanding that they launch the remaining hostages.
Created throughout Israeli-Palestinian peace talks within the Nineties, the Palestinian Authority nonetheless oversees components of the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution. Many Palestinians hoped the physique would sooner or later govern an impartial state, however negotiations to that finish foundered within the early 2000s within the face of rising violence.
A major a part of the governing Israeli coalition assist indefinite Israeli management within the West Financial institution and Gaza. Israel additionally commonly confiscates and withholds massive chunks of the Palestinian funds, financially hobbling Mr. Abbas’s authorities.
At dwelling, an awesome majority of Palestinians need Mr. Abbas to step down, opinion polls present. Some assist his Hamas rivals, arguing that the Palestinian Authority’s diplomatic method has failed. In response, Mr. Abbas has consolidated energy and cracked down on his critics.
Amid the warfare in Gaza, the Biden administration and its Arab allies urged Mr. Abbas to overtake the authority. Many Western officers have considered it as the only real possible different to Hamas and have hoped that it might run the Gaza Strip after the warfare.
However U.S. and Arab officers have proposed that Mr. Abbas hand over a minimum of some energy, which he has been loath to do. Palestinians haven’t had nationwide elections since 2006, when Mr. Abbas’s Fatah faction misplaced to Hamas on the poll field.
One request was for Mr. Abbas to nominate an empowered prime minister to rehabilitate the Palestinian Authority’s governance and combat corruption. As an alternative, he named one among his closest aides, Mohammad Mustafa, to the publish, which many observers noticed as more of the same.
Arab leaders additionally pressed Mr. Abbas to deal extra severely with the query of who may succeed him, together with by appointing a deputy who would attempt to guarantee continuity within the occasion of his dying, based on two Palestinian officers and a Western diplomat, who spoke on situation of anonymity to debate such delicate particulars.
Throughout a gathering in the summertime of 2024, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia pressed Mr. Abbas to nominate a vice chairman, the Palestinian officers mentioned.
On Saturday evening, the Palestine Liberation Group’s govt committee assented to Mr. Abbas’s request to provide Mr. al-Sheikh the title of deputy chairman of the manager committee of the Palestine Liberation Group. Mr. al-Sheikh additionally mentioned on social media that he now bore the title of “vice chairman of the State of Palestine.”
“Abbas’s major purpose is to alleviate himself of the stress from the Arabs,” mentioned Jehad Harb, a Ramallah-based political analyst. “But it surely’s nonetheless unclear whether or not he’s really giving up energy.”
Saudi Arabia welcomed Mr. al-Sheikh’s appointment on Saturday, saying it was poised to “strengthen the Palestinian political system.”
Mr. al-Sheikh has lengthy labored intently together with his Israeli and American counterparts, who typically describe him as a practical average. Many Palestinians see him as emblematic of the failures of the Palestinian Authority and a logo of the deadlocked established order.
However what may occur ought to Mr. Abbas die in workplace stays nebulous, as he has declined to nominate a transparent inheritor, step down or permit for democratic elections. The outcome has been an influence battle amongst senior Palestinian officers jockeying for place earlier than his dying.
