Rare moves raise speculation that the PA chief is feeling the heat
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is shaking up the political arena in Ramallah, amid infighting among members of his ruling Fatah faction and perhaps with a view to shoring up power as multiple crises come to a head.
Over the past week, Abbas issued a presidential decree removing Issa Qaraqe from his position as Minister of Prisoner Affairs and appointing a nine-person body to assume his role; and promoted his longtime spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Information.
Abbas also named senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Committee for Palestinian Refugees in the Diaspora, a position previously held by a member of a competing political group.
When contacted by The Media Line, Abbas’ Office remarked only that these were “direct” decisions made by the PA leader.
“Currently, Palestinian laws are enacted through presidential decrees,” Hanna Issa, a Palestinian political analyst, told The Media Line in reference to Qaraqe’s dismissal. “Normally, Palestinian society would be governed by the ‘Amended Basic Laws,’ however these rules have not applied since the Palestinian Legislative Council [PLC] ceased to function.
“Since Hamas’ coup in 2006, [which forcibly evicted Fatah from the Gaza Strip], Abbas has been in charge of all regulations. This will be the case until new elections are held.”
Issa noted that the PLC, the PA’s legislative body, would upon its reconstitution be tasked with reviewing all presidential decrees. Notably, the PLC legislated 90 laws between its establishment in 1996 and shuttering a decade later, whereas Abbas unilaterally enacted 246 laws between 2007 and 2016.
A source told The Media Line under a condition of anonymity that Qaraqe was sacked due to a dispute with Palestinian leader Jibril Rajoub, stemming from the latter’s omission from a movie depicting a famous hunger strike staged in 1980 by Palestinian prisoners at Israel’s Nafha prison.
Rajoub was one of initiators of that protest movement.
“The filmmakers approached Rajoub to include him as he spent over 18 years in Israeli prisons and published a book about the hunger strike,” the source revealed. “While Rajoub requested that the filming be postponed due to his busy schedule at the time, the movie was nevertheless shot and then approved for release by Qaraqe.
“Qaraqe traveled to Lebanon last week to participate in a conference regarding the Palestinian prisoners. This gave Abbas and Rajoub enough time to cook up his expulsion. Qaraqe was simply informed that he is unwanted by the Palestinian presidency,” the source asserted.
When reached by The Media Line, a spokesperson for Rajoub refused to comment on the subject.
But there may be more than meets the eye, as Qaraqe recently expressed opposition to sanctions imposed by Abbas on Hamas-ruled Gaza. The former minister in the past also showed support for Palestinian prisoners loyal to Abbas rival Marwan Barghouti, who is currently serving five life sentences in an Israeli jail.
According to Palestinian public opinion polls, Barghouti is the most popular choice to assume Abbas’ job.
Some reports even contend that Qaraqe’s dismissal was linked to growing U.S. and Israeli pressure to halt payments to Palestinians prisoners and to the families of those killed in attacks on Israel.
In this respect, the Israeli parliament last month passed legislation that will immediately begin deducting portions of the estimated $400 million the PA pays out annually as part of its “martyr” program from the taxes Israel collects on Ramallah’s behalf, as stipulated by the 1993 Oslo Accords. This follows the U.S. Congress’ adoption in March of the Taylor Force Act, which, if approved by the Senate and signed into law by President Donald Trump, will cut-off hundreds of millions of dollars in American financial support to the PA unless it discontinues the controversial payment policy.
Moen al-Taher, a Jordanian political analyst, described Abbas’ moves as “immature” and a reflection of the PA’s inability to properly confront the current crises it is facing. He noted that while “the [Trump] administration is working towards the elimination of the United Nations Relief and Work Agency and the cancellation of the Palestinian refugees’ status in Jordan,” the PA seems pre-occupied with menial issues.
“I don’t understand why Abbas is pushing Hamas towards a truce with Israel, and I don’t understand how things are normal on the ground [in the West Bank] when Israel is implementing the [so-called Nation-state Law that reinforces the country’s Jewishness],” al-Taher concluded.
Further complicating matters is Abbas’ ongoing inability to bury the hatchet with Hamas, which the PA accuses of forgoing national unity in favor of economic benefits being offered as part of a potential ceasefire agreement with Israel. Finally, there is the so-called “deal of the century,” President Trump’s soon-to-be unveiled Israeli-Palestinian peace plan which the PA has rejected outright and describes as an attempt to “liquidate” the Palestinian cause.