Mahmoud Abbas appoints Hussein al-Sheikh as deputy

One of the issues that was bothering the Arab and Western leaders was to find a successor to Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas is frail in terms of his age at 89 and also as a weak leader of (PA) and of Fatah, the dominant faction in the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).

The PLO excludes Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, who are fighting Israel in Gaza. The Western and Arab leaders who have been looking to set up a post-truce authority in Gaza, did not find Abbas to be the credible leader who can find acceptance among the Palestinians in Gaza and in the West Bank. Abbas has been under pressure to nominate a successor.

On Saturday, Abbas has named Hussein al-Sheikh as vice-president of PLO and he is now seen as a successor to Abbas. Al-Sheikh is a Fatah veteran and he has been assisting Abbas since 2007 as the head of the General Authority for Civic Affairs. He was made the secretary-general of the PLO’s Executive Committee in 2022.

According to reports he has been the coordinator with Israel on security matters, and he is trusted by Israelis. During his imprisonment from 1978 and 1980s in Israel, Al-Sheikh had learnt Hebrew and that gives him an advantage in dealing with the Israelis. He is 64, and father of four daughters and two sons.

Expectedly, Hamas did not accept the nomination of Al-Sheikh as the vice-president of PLO, and therefore as leader of Palestinians. Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim said of Al-Sheikh’s appointment, “The Palestinian people are not a herd to have imposed upon them leaders with dubious history who have tied their present and future to the occupation. Legitimacy is held by the Palestinian people. The guardianship over our people is long gone.”

This would mean that despite the odds, Hamas will continue to contest for the leadership of the Palestinians. Hamas had won the majority in the 2006 elections.

The Palestinian news agency, WAFA, reported that during the 32nd session of the PLO when Al-Sheikh was named the vice-president, Abbas had promised a “comprehensive dialogue” involving all Palestinian factions “to achieve reconciliation and reinforce national unity”. Abbas had, according to WAFA, told the committee about “upcoming political efforts aimed at halting the ongoing Israeli aggression and war of genocide in Gaza Strip.” The “political efforts” include Palestinian governance over Gaza and the total withdrawal of Israel as a “step towards launching a political process to end the occupation and realise an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

The attempts to find a successor to Abbas occur “as there are many things the Palestinian situation requires,” according to analyst Aref Jaffal, director of the Al-Marsad Election Monitoring Centre. The question is whether the arrangement will pass muster. Jaffal says, “The Palestinian political system is already miserable, so I believe that all these arrangements are a prelude to creating a successor to Abbas.”

Egypt and Qatar, which are engaged in negotiations to find a post-truce arrangement in Gaza, want to exclude Hamas from the governance system in Gaza, and the Western powers too want the same thing.

The need was to find a successor to Abbas who has the energy to deal with the responsibility of negotiations, which are going to be long-drawn and quite slow and frustrating. Al-Sheikh could be the man because he has been dealing with the Israelis for quite some time now.

It is a difficult task and as Abbas has indicated the different factions of PLO have to be united. If the PLO is divided, then it becomes easier for Hamas to assert itself. The inner tussle for Palestinian leadership Is indeed the big challenge for the Palestinians. At the same time, it indicates the fierce democratic politics in the PLO and among the Palestinians.