The unpopular and politically weak 90-year-old Palestinian leader struggles for a role in Gaza

CAIRO (AP) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas A man who turns 90 on Saturday still wields authoritarian power in small pockets of the West Bank but is marginalized and weakened by Israel, is widely unpopular among Palestinians and is struggling to gain a say in the post-war Gaza Strip.

Abbas, the world’s second-oldest president after Cameroon’s 92-year-old Paul Biya, has been in office for 20 years and has failed to hold elections for nearly all that time. Critics say his weakness has left the Palestinians leaderless at a time when Palestinians face an existential crisis and hopes of establishing a Palestinian state, which is at the center of Abbas’ agenda, appear dimmer than ever.

Palestinians say Israel’s campaign against Hamas The view that the destruction of a large part of Gaza amounted to genocide was also expressed by many international law experts, organizations and other countries. Israel vehemently denies the accusation and has tightened its control over the West Bank, where Jewish settlements are expanding. attacks by settlers about Palestinians increasing. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing allies put pressure on direct annexationThis is a step that will destroy any remaining possibility of statehood.

For now, the US has agreed that Israel will not allow Abbas’ Palestinian Authority to rule post-war Gaza. Without an effective leader, critics fear that the region’s Palestinians will be condemned to live under an international structure ruled by Israel’s allies, with little voice and no real path to statehood.

Khalil Shikaki, head of the Palestinian pollster People’s Survey and Survey Research Company, said Abbas “buried his head in the sand and took no initiative.”

“His legitimacy was exhausted a long time ago,” Shikaki told The Associated Press. “He has become a liability to his own party and to the Palestinians as a whole.”

The Palestinian Authority is notorious for corruption in pockets of the West Bank it governs. Abbas rarely leaves his headquarters in the city of Ramallah. except when traveling abroad. He limits decision-making to his immediate circle; Hussein al-Sheikhlong time confidant named as designated successor In April.

An October poll by Shikaki’s organization found that 80% of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza wanted Abbas to resign. Only a third want the Palestinian Authority to have full or joint administration of the Gaza Strip. The survey of 1,200 people had a margin of error of 3.5 percent.

Arafat’s successor

This is a long way from 20 years ago, when Abbas was posthumously elected president. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the hope that he could negotiate for an independent state.

The first blow came in 2007. Hamas directed the Palestinian Authority It emerged from the Gaza Strip in a violent takeover. Hamas rule has solidified the separation between Israeli-occupied Gaza and the West Bank, where Palestinians seek a state.

Abbas was left in charge of pockets around the West Bank’s main population centers. But its power is crippled because Israel controls the economy, the West Bank’s resources, most of its territory and access to the outside world.

Netanyahu, who came to power in 2009, rejects the establishment of a Palestinian state. Ehud Olmert, who succeeded Netanyahu as prime minister and perhaps came closest to reaching a peace deal with Abbas shortly before his ouster, said his “strategy from day one” was to weaken the Palestinian Authority.

Olmert said Netanyahu’s aim was to “block the chance of coming up with a compromise that could be turned into a historic agreement.”

Cooperation with Israel

The campaign to weaken the Palestinian Authority comes even as Abbas fulfills an important role demanded by Israel and the international community: security cooperation with Israel. The Palestinian Authority exchanges intelligence on militants with Israel and often cracks down on armed groups.

To many Palestinians, this makes the Palestinian Authority a subcontractor of the occupation; Israel is suppressing dissent as it absorbs more and more of the West Bank.

“Israel has chosen to align itself with the Israeli occupation even though it is trying to make itself more fragile and weak,” said Abdaljawad Omar, an assistant professor of philosophy and cultural studies at Bir Zeit University in the West Bank.

Netanyahu often accuses Abbas of not truly seeking peace and of inciting violence against Israel. Netanyahu’s government has repeatedly stopped the transfer of tax money collected by Israel for the Palestinian Authority for salaries paid to the families of people imprisoned or killed by Israel.

According to the Palestinian Authority, despite reforms to the salary system, Israel withholds approximately $3 billion. This situation worsened the ongoing economic crisis in the West Bank.

Ghassan Khatib, who was Palestinian Planning Minister under Abbas in 2005-06, said Israel’s campaign against the Palestinian Authority had brought it “to the brink of collapse”.

Khatib defended a policy that Abbas’ supporters called his “practical realism”. Abbas managed to remain credible by working to prevent violence on the international stageHe said he was trying to build international support and gain official recognition of the Palestinian state. a growing list of countries.

However, this did not bring successful pressure from the United States or Europe on Israel to halt settlement expansion or reach a peace agreement.

Avoiding alternatives

Omar said Abbas’s pragmatic realism was “a form of national suicide” at a time when Israel’s far right was pushing for the “destruction of the Palestinians.”

He said Abbas, fearful of his rivals, has prevented large-scale participation in government, alternative leadership or popular movements, even for serious non-violent resistance or civil disobedience against Israel.

Omar, who was 17 when Abbas took office, said: “Politics was abolished so that young people could get busy and stand against the occupation.”

Shikaki said Abbas’ inaction only increased support for Hamas, which portrayed the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel as aimed at ending the Israeli occupation.

Although some Palestinians believe the attack was a disaster, “they think Hamas is trying to do something on behalf of the Palestinian people,” he said. “They see that Abbas did nothing.”

Reform attempts

US President Donald Trump’s plan calls for the establishment of an international council that would govern the Gaza Strip after the overthrow of Hamas and carry out day-to-day services for the Palestinian administration. He raises the possibility of the Palestinian Authority gaining control if it carries out unspecified reforms to the council’s satisfaction.

Abbas made some gestures towards change.

He promised that parliamentary and presidential elections would be held within a year of the end of the war in Gaza. This week, meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, he announced a Palestinian-French commission to draw up a new constitution. In a high-profile move against corruption, the transport minister was sacked in October and put under investigation over allegations of bribery, local media reported.

Palestinians are skeptical. 60 percent of respondents to the PCPSR survey said they doubted Abbas would hold an election. It turns out that if a vote were held there would be a clear winner Mervan BarghoutiA senior figure from Abbas’ Fatah group Imprisoned by Israel since 2002. Abbas will come in third behind any Hamas candidate.

Ines Abdel Razak, co-director of the advocacy group Palestine Public Diplomacy Institute, said the United States and Israel are not interested in true democratization.

“This essentially means that all Palestinians will have a say,” he said. “Any effective ruler will oppose Israeli occupation.”

Khatib said Israel could likely keep the Palestinian Authority out of Gaza because its unification with the West Bank would only increase Palestinian demands for statehood.

“Israel is the party that makes the decisions on the field,” he said.

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Associated Press writer Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.