By Robert Inlakesh

Unlike what happened following Yasser Arafat’s death, it appears somewhat unlikely that a Presidential election would be held within the allotted span of time that is mandated by the PA’s Constitution.

The President of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Mahmoud Abbas, has selected a successor to run an interim administration in the event of his death or he is forced to step down from the role he occupies due to health reasons. The man he has picked for the job is Rawhi Fattouh.

Rawhi Ahmed Muhammad Fattouh, otherwise known as Abu Wissam, was born on August 23, 1949, and spent the earliest years of his life in the Rafah refugee camp near the southernmost city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip. 

However, his family originated from the village of Barqa, located north of Gaza, which was ethnically cleansed by Israel in their infamous “Operation Barak” in 1948.

Fattouh attended a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) during primary school, before later attending another school in the Egyptian city of al-Arish where his family had moved.

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Eventually, after the initiation of the 1967 war – in which Israel launched a surprise attack on Egypt and illegally occupied the Sinai Peninsula – his family then moved once again to the city of Zarqa, in Jordan, where he would complete his high-school diploma.

The future Palestinian Authority official studied English Literature and graduated in 1979 from the University of Damascus in Syria, he would much later go on to complete a Masters degree in political science in 2002.

He began his involvement with the Fatah Party, led by Yasser Arafat, only a year after moving to Jordan, in 1968, and joined the group’s mainstream armed wing known as al-Asifah. He later moved with Fatah’s forces and received training in Jordan, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon.

Fattouh’s political career started with Fatah’s Syria Region branch, for which he served as a Secretary of the Organization, as well as heading Fatah Student Movement branches in Syria. 

He eventually became a member of the Executive Body of the Union of Palestinian Students and in 1989 was elected as a member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council at the Fifth General Conference.

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In 1996, Fattouh was first elected as a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) for the Rafah Governorate District, in 2003 he became the PA’s Minister of Agriculture and in 2004, the Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council.

In 2004 he also became the President of the Palestinian Authority for the period of 60 days, as he was selected by Yasser Arafat to fill his position for this interim period in the event of his death. He was succeeded by Mahmoud Abbas, who was then elected as PA President.

PA President Abbas has now made the same decision and made Rawhi Fattouh his successor in the event of his death or he bows out of the position due to illness.

However, unlike what happened following Yasser Arafat’s death, it appears somewhat unlikely that a Presidential election would be held within the allotted span of time that is mandated by the PA’s Constitution.

There has not been a Palestinian Authority Presidential election in nearly 20 years, as Mahmoud Abbas had chosen to block all previous attempts to go to new elections. This decision has been argued to have come due to Israel blocking the PA’s ability to allow for ballots to exist in East Jerusalem, despite experts arguing that this is no longer an issue that cannot be solved.

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During his 20-year rule, Mahmoud Abbas has assumed de facto control of the judiciary, security, intelligence, and just about all elements of the Palestinian Authority, receiving US, EU, and Israeli backing throughout his term to maintain the status quo. This has created what has been argued to be a quasi-dictatorship which has been set up and maintains limited control over areas A and B in the occupied West Bank.

While Fattouh will be a name change, he will also struggle to remedy the popular view in the West Bank that the PA is a corrupt institution, especially due to the fact that in the late 2000’s he was found to have been smuggling thousands of mobile phones into the territory from Jordan, using his Israeli granted “VIP pass”. 

Even if Fattouh manages to improve the image of the PA, he will be caught in the middle of a power struggle between various elements of the PA’s ruling Fatah Party, who will be vying for political power and/or moves to be taken towards reform.

(The Palestine Chronicle)

– Robert Inlakesh is a journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker. He focuses on the Middle East, specializing in Palestine. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.