Mahmoud Abbas

Mahmoud Abbas

Order:	2nd President of the PNA
Term of Office:	January 15, 2005–
Predecessor:	Rauhi Fattouh
Date of Birth:	March 26, 1935
Profession:	Lawyer

Mahmoud Abbas (Arabic: محمود عباس) (born March 26, 1935), commonly known as Abu Mazen (ابو مازن), was elected President (Ra'ees) of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) on January 9, 2005 and took office on January 15, 2005.

President Abbas is a leading politician in Fatah. He has served as Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), since November 11, 2004, after Yasser Arafat's death. He served as the first Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority from March to October 2003 when he resigned amid a power struggle with Arafat. Before being named Prime Minister, Abbas led the PLO's Negotiations Affairs Department. His reputation in the West is that of a "moderating influence" in the Palestinian Authority, with a genuine drive towards achieving peace. However many perceive his approach to be too lenient and conciliatory; that he is compromising Palestinian rights in order to earn favor in Israel and the United States of America. (His name Abu Mazen is an honorific title, expressing popular esteem within Palestinian society, and refers to his role as father of Mazen, his eldest son. It is common for Arab men to be known by such a name.)

Biography

Youth and education

Abbas was born in 1935 in Safed, then part of the British Mandate of Palestine. After the founding of Israel in 1948—and the subsequent occupation of the rest of the former Mandate by Jordan and Egypt—Abbas left for Syria, where he taught school and graduated from the University of Damascus, before going to Egypt, where he studied law. Subsequently, Abbas entered graduate studies at the Oriental College in Moscow, where he earned a Ph.D. in history. In 1982, Abbas wrote a doctoral dissertation, referring to so-called "Holocaust deniers", claiming secret ties between the Nazis and the Zionist movement. In 1984, a book based on Abbas' doctoral dissertation was published in Arabic by Dar Ibn Rushd publishers in Amman, Jordan. His doctoral thesis later became a book, The Other Side: the Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism, which, following his appointment as Palestinian Prime Minister in 2003, was heavily criticized by some Jewish groups as an example of Holocaust denial. In his book, Abbas raised doubts that gas chambers were used for the extermination of Jews, and suggested that the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust was "less than a million." In an interview with Haaretz in May 2003, he claimed merely to have been quoting the wide range of scholarly disagreement over the Holocaust, but no longer harbored any desire to argue with the generally accepted figures; he further affirmed his belief that "the Holocaust was a terrible, unforgivable crime against the Jewish nation, a crime against humanity that cannot be accepted by humankind".

Involvement with politics

In the mid 1950s Abbas became heavily involved in underground Palestinian politics, joining a number of exiled Palestinians in Qatar, where he was Director of Personnel in the emirate's Civil Service. While there, he recruited a number of people who would become key figures in the Palestine Liberation Organization, and was one of the founding members of Fatah in 1957. Yaser Arafat was among other key members.

Throughout the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, Abbas travelled with Arafat and the rest of the PA leadership in exile to Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia (see article on Yasser Arafat for details). Though he garnered little media attention, Abbas is said to have had a powerful behind-the-scenes influence on the Palestinian Authority, and was widely regarded as a highly intellectual pragmatist. In particular, he is credited with initiating secretive contacts with left-wing and pacifist Jewish groups during the 1970s and 80s, and is considered by many to be a major architect of the 1993 Oslo peace accords (evidenced in part by the fact that he traveled with Arafat to the White House to sign the accords).

Abbas has nonetheless been charged with unknowingly financing violent resistance from some quarters: Mohammed Daoud Oudeh (Abu Daoud), the mastermind of the Munich Massacre on Israeli Olympic athletes in 1972, charges that his operation was funded by Abbas. Daoud is the sole source for these charges, and they have not been corroborated by others. [1] [2].

At the same time he has performed diplomatic duties, presenting a moderating face for PLO policies. Abbas was the first PLO official to visit Saudi Arabia after the Gulf War in January 1993 to mend fences with the Gulf countries for the PLO's opposition to US attack on Iraq during the crisis. At the 1993 peace accord with Israel, Abbas was the signatory for the PLO on September 13, 1993. he published a memoir Through Secret Channels: The Road to Oslo (1995).

Mahmoud Abbas, United States President George W. Bush, and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon after reading statement to the press during the closing moments of the Red Sea Summit in Aqaba, Jordan, June 4, 2003.

Term as Prime Minister

By early 2003, as both Israel and the United States had indicated their refusal to negotiate with Yasser Arafat, Abbas began to emerge as a candidate for a more visible leadership role. As one of the few remaining founding members of Fatah, he had some degree of credibility within the Palestinian cause, and his candidacy was bolstered by the fact that other high-profile Palestinians were for various reasons not suitable (the most notable, Marwan Bargouti, was under arrest in an Israel jail). Abbas's reputation as a pragmatist garnered him favor with the West and certain elements of the Palestinian legislature, and pressure was soon brought on Arafat to appoint him Prime Minister. Arafat did so on March 19, 2003; initially Arafat attempted to eviscerate the post of Prime Minister, but eventually was forced to give Abbas some degree of real power.

However, the rest of Abbas's term as Prime Minister continued to be characterized by numerous conflicts between him and Arafat over the distribution of power between the two. Abbas had often hinted he would resign if not given more control over the PA's administration. In early September 2003 he confronted the PA parliament over this issue. The United States and Israel accused Arafat of constantly undermining Abbas and his government.

In addition, Abbas came into conflict with Palestinian militant groups, notably Islamic Jihad and Hamas; his moderate pragmatic policies were diametrically opposed to their hard-line approach. Initially he pledged not to use force against the militants, in the interest of avoiding a civil war, and instead attempted negotiation. This was partially successful, resulting in a pledge from the two groups to honor a unilateral Palestinian cease-fire. However, continuing violence and Israeli "target murders" forced Abbas to pledge a crackdown in order to uphold the Palestinian Authority's side of the Road Map for Peace. This led to a power struggle with Arafat over control of the Palestinian security services; Arafat refused to release control to Abbas, thus preventing him from using them in a crackdown on militants.

Resignation

On September 4 2003, demonstrations and threats against Abbas peaked in death threats. Two days later on September 6, he called a closed session of the Palestinian Legislative Council detailed his reasons and submitted his resignation from the post of Prime Minister, citing inability to carry out his duties in the face of continual opposition from Arafat and others in the Palestinian Authority, as well as a lack of support from Israel and the United States. He presided over a "caretaker" government until his successor Ahmed Qurei was sworn in on October 7, 2003.

Following these events, Abbas dropped out of the public eye for a time but was seen in January 2004 carrying out talks with Palestinian factions in Gaza. Abbas was back in the public eye after Yasser Arafat died and Abbas became the chairman of the PLO.

In an interview with Newsweek on June 13, 2004, Abbas revealed that a major reason for his resignation was that he felt his life was in danger due to increasingly hostile protests against his leadership. When asked "How many of these things were instigated by Chairman Arafat?", he responded, "I wouldn't want to mention anyone by name. But I'll give you something to understand; I don't have any relationship with the chairman from the resignation to this day."

2005 presidential election

On November 25 2004, Abbas was endorsed by the Fatah Revolutionary Council, as its preferred candidate for the Palestinian presidential election, scheduled for January 9, 2005.

On December 14, Abbas called for an end to violence in the Al-Aqsa Intifada and a return to peaceful resistance. Abbas told the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that "the use of arms has been damaging and should end". However, he refused to disarm Palestinian militants and use force to act against groups that Israel, the United States, and the European Union designated as "terrorist organizations".

On January 9, Abbas was elected by a large majority as the new president of the Palestinian Authority. (See Palestinian presidential election, 2005 for election statistics.)

Upon acceptance, confusion over his position suddenly emerged after statements made to the crowd chanting "a million shahids". Abbas stated, "I present this victory to the soul of brother martyr Yassir Arafat and to our shahids," then promised to protect the "strugglers" wanted by Israel for "terrorist" attacks, and that "the little jihad has ended and now the big jihad is beginning". [3]

Despite Abbas' call for a peaceful solution, attacks by militant groups continued after his election in a direct challenge to his authority. Islamic Jihad launched a raid in Gaza on January 12, killing one settler and wounding three military personnel in Gaza. On January 13, Palestinians from Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Hamas and The Popular Resistance Committees launched a suicide attack on the Karni crossing, killing 6 Israelis. As a result, Israel shut down the damaged terminal and broke off relations with Abbas and the Palestinian Authority, stating that Abbas must now show a gesture of peace by attempting to stop such attacks.

Abbas was formally sworn in as president in a ceremony held on January 15 in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

On January 23, Israeli radio reported that Abbas had secured a 30-day ceasefire from Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Quotes

• "There is absolutely no substitution for dialogue." (2003)

External links

• Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen Website Official
• Palestinian group endorses Abbas, BBC News
• Abbas: No Force Against Arab Militants, AP (June 9, 2003)
• Profile: Mahmoud Abbas, BBC News (September 4, 2003)
• Someone Was Going to Kill Newsweek Interview of Mahmoud Abbas (June 21 Issue)