Mahmoud Abbas
Mahmoud Abbas (
Arabic: محمود عباس) (born
March 26,
1935), commonly known by the
kunya Abu Mazen (ابو مازن), was
elected President of the
Palestinian National Authority (PNA) on
January 9,
2005, and took office on
January 15,
2005.
Abbas is a leading politician in
Fatah. He served as the first
Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority from March to October 2003 when he resigned citing lack of support from Israel and the United States as well as "internal incitement" against his government [
1]. Before being named Prime Minister, Abbas led the PLO's Negotiations Affairs Department. He has served as Chairman of the PLO Executive Committee since
November 11,
2004, after
Yasser Arafat's death. With Hamas now in control of the Palestinian Authority, Abbas is frequently portrayed as the face of Palestinian moderation.
Youth and education
Abbas was born in 1935 in
Safed, then part of the
British Mandate of Palestine. His family became refugees during the war of 1948 and settled in
Syria. In Syria 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
Peoples' Friendship University of Russia 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 as an example of
Holocaust denial, but corroborated by the Jewish German writer Hanna Arendt in her book "The Banality of Evil" . 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". [
2]
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.
Yasser Arafat was among other key members.
Throughout the 1960s,
70s, and
80s, Abbas traveled with Arafat and the rest of the PLO leadership in exile to
Jordan,
Lebanon and
Tunisia (see article on
Yasser Arafat for details). Though he garnered little attention particularly in the Western media, Abbas is said to have had a powerful behind-the-scenes influence on the PLO. He is by some commentators regarded as an intellectual pragmatist. 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).
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).
1972 Olympic Massacre
The
Munich massacre occurred at the
1972 Summer Olympics in
Munich,
Germany, when members of the
Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage by the
Palestinian terrorist organization
Black September, assumed to be an operational cover for
Yasser Arafat's Fatah group. The attack led directly to the deaths of 11 Israeli athletes, five of the eight kidnappers, and one
German police officer.
Mohammed Daoud Oudeh, one of those believed to have planned or executed the Munich attack, fingered Mahmoud Abbas as responsible for funding the operation. In his autobiography,
Memoirs of a Palestinian Terrorist, Daoud writes:
Though he didn't know what the money was being spent for, longtime Fatah official Mahmoud Abbas, aka Abu Mazen, was responsible for the financing of the Munich attack. ― Daoud, M. (Abu Daoud) (New York, 2002) Memoirs of a Palestinian Terrorist ISBN 1559704292
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 Israeli 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 undermine the post of Prime Minister, but eventually was forced to give Abbas some degree of 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 killings" of known terrorists 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.
2005 presidential election
After Yasser Arafat's death Mahmoud Abbas was seen, at least by Fatah, as his natural successor.
On
November 25, Abbas was endorsed by Fatah's 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".
With his main contender, Marwan Bargouti, dropping out of the race, Abbas' election was virtually ensured, and on
January 9 Abbas was elected with 62% of the vote as the new president of the Palestinian Authority. (See
Palestinian presidential election, 2005 for election statistics.)
In his speech, he addressed a crowd of supporters chanting "a million
shahids", stating: "I present this victory to the soul of Yasser Arafat and present it to our people, to our martyrs and to 11,000 prisoners". He also called for Palestinian groups to end the use of arms against Israelis. [
3][
4].
Post 2005 presidential election
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 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 six 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 the
President of Palestine in a ceremony held on
January 15 in the
West Bank town of
Ramallah.
On
January 23 2005, Israeli radio reported that Abbas had secured a 30-day ceasefire from Hamas and Islamic Jihad. On
February 12, lone Palestinians attacked Israel settlements and Abbas quickly fired some of his security officers for not stopping the attacks in a ceasefire.
On
April 9 2005, Abbas said that the killing of three Palestinians in southern Gaza by Israeli soldiers is a deliberate violation of the declared ceasefire deal. "This violation is made on purpose," Abbas said in a written statement sent to reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Abbas made the statement shortly after three Palestinian teenage boys were shot dead by Israeli troops in the southern Gaza town of Rafah. Israel claimed they thought the boys were attempting to smuggle weapons, while Palestinians claimed a group of boys were playing soccer and three of them went to retrieve the ball near the border fence. [
5]
"The Palestinian National Authority will not turn a blind eye to the shedding of the blood of our people and our children. We can never accept opening fire at our children who pose no danger at all," said Abbas. Abbas said the Palestinian children "are as precious to their parents as the Israeli children to their parents." Condemning the Israeli shooting as "unjustified", Abbas urged Israel to take serious actions to show commitment to the truce.
In May of 2005, Abbas travelled to the
White House and met with
President George W Bush of the
United States. Bush, in return for Abbas' crackdown on terrorists, pledged $50 million in aid to the
Palestinian Authority and reiterated the U.S. pledge for a free Palestinian state. It was the first direct aid the United States has given to them, as previous donations have gone through non-governmental organizations. The next day Prime Minister
Paul Martin of
Canada pledged $9.5 million in new aid for judicial reform and housing projects, monitors for the coming Palestinian elections, border management and scholarships for Palestinian refugee women in Lebanon. [
6]
On
July 25,
2005 he announced that he will move his office to Gaza until the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops. He will also be co-ordinating the Palestinian side of the withdrawal, and to mediate between the different factions.[
7]
On
August 9,
2005 he announced that Palestinian legislative elections, originally scheduled for
July 17, will take place in January of 2006.[
8] On
January 15,
2006 he declared that despite unrest in Gaza, he would not change the set date of the elections (
January 25), unless Israel decided to prevent Palestinians in
East Jerusalem from voting.[
9]
On
January 16,
2006 he said that he would not run for office again at the end of his current term. [
10]
On
May 25, Abbas gives Hamas a 10 day deadline to accept the 1967 cease-fire lines.
On
June 2, Abbas again announced that if Hamas does not approve the
prisoner's document - which calls for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict according to the 1967 borders - within two days, he would present the initiative as a referendum. This has since been extended until June the 10th 2006, although Hamas spokespeople say that a change in their stance will not occur, and that Abbas is not constitutionally permitted to call a referendum, especially so soon after the January elections.
*"There is absolutely no substitution for dialogue." (2003)
*"The little jihad is over, and now we have the bigger jihad - the bigger battle is achieving security and economic growth" (2005) [
11]
*"From here [the Gaza withdrawal], our people begin the march towards establishing an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital" [
12]
*"Today we are visitors to the airport (referring to
Yaser Arafat International Airport), tomorrow we will come here as travellers." (
19 August 2005) [
13]
*"I renew my commitment to continuing the road he [Arafat] began and for which he made a lot of sacrifices, until the Palestinian flag flies from the walls, minarets and churches of Jerusalem." (2005) [
14]
*"It seems that the interest of the Zionist movement, however, is to inflate this figure [of Holocaust deaths] so that their gains will be greater. This led them to emphasize this figure [six million] in order to gain the solidarity of international public opinion with Zionism. Many scholars have debated the figure of six million and reached stunning conclusions--fixing the number of Jewish victims at only a few hundred thousand." (1983) [
15]
*"I wrote in detail about the Holocaust and said I did not want to discuss numbers. I quoted an argument between historians in which various numbers of casualties were mentioned. One wrote there were 12 million victims and another wrote there were 800,000. I have no desire to argue with the figures. The Holocaust was a terrible, unforgivable crime against the Jewish nation, a crime against humanity that cannot be accepted by humankind. The Holocaust was a terrible thing and nobody can claim I denied it." [
16]
*
List of state leaders*
PLO Chairman, PNA President official site (move cursor over 'English' to see categories)
Bush pledges $50 million to Palestinian Authority,
CNN (
May 26 2005)
I Don't Have a Magic Wand,
Der Spiegel (
February 21 2005)
Palestinian Head Meets Barghouti,
BBC News (
November 26 2004)
Someone Was Going to Kill Newsweek Interview of Mahmoud Abbas (
June 21 2004 issue)
Profile: Mahmoud Abbas,
BBC News (
September 4 2003)
Abbas: No Force Against Arab Militants,
AP (
June 9 2003)
*
Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen photo
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Open Directory Project - Mahmoud Abbas directory category
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Yahoo! - Mahmoud Abbas directory category
