Eurasia Press & News
In a typical authoritarian overreach, Mahmoud Abbas and the PA appear to be lining up a successor Israel wants — and Palestinians don’t, writes Yara Hawari.
At the beginning of May 2025, in a move that stunned many Palestinians, President Mahmoud Abbas appointed Hussein al-Sheikh as Deputy Chair of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Vice President of the State of Palestine.
Both titles, notably, did not exist before this appointment and were created by presidential decree. Overshadowed by the 12-day Israel-Iran war, the relentless massacres at aid distribution sites in Gaza, and the ongoing genocide, the announcement received little attention, both domestically and internationally.
Yet it marks a significant development, one that quietly lays the groundwork for what may come next.
With no constitutional precedent or procedural legitimacy, these tailor-made roles now place al-Sheikh squarely in the line of succession to Abbas, the second-oldest serving president in the world.
While the timing of this move was unexpected, it follows a familiar pattern of increasing authoritarianism and paternalism within the Palestinian political system.
Predictably, some in the international community have publicly supported the move, including regional actors such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, and Jordan.
Indeed, it is reported that in the summer of 2024, Mohammed Bin Salman suggested the creation of such a position to Abbas. The EU Representative Office in Palestine also welcomed the appointment, calling it “an important step in PA reform”.
The EU has long claimed to champion reform of the Palestinian political system and has frequently called for elections, calls that many Palestinians view as mere lip service.
With good reason: in 2006, the EU rejected Hamas’s victory in what was widely recognised as free and fair elections, and eventually sanctioned the party.
Nearly two decades later, lauding a president who is sixteen years past his elected mandate for hand-picking his own successor, who is widely reviled by the Palestinian public, only reinforces the perception that the EU’s commitment to democratising the PA is a facade.
Who is Hussein al-Sheikh, Israel’s man in Ramallah?
Al-Sheikh has been on the political scene for nearly two decades, and his unpopularity is well earned.
In 2007, he took charge of security coordination with the Israeli regime, a mechanism imposed by the Oslo Accords, designed to suppress Palestinian resistance and political opposition to the PA. Al-Sheikh also holds the civil affairs portfolio, which includes, among other things, arranging travel and movement permits, something widely seen as a form of corruption currency in the West Bank.
Over the years, he has developed a strong relationship with his Israeli counterparts, so much so that, in 2012, members of the Israeli security establishment reportedly attempted to pressure an Israeli journalist to kill a story on allegations of sexual harassment against al-Sheikh.
Even more damning is how he is perceived politically. In a recent interview with Drop Site News’s Jeremy Scahill, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said: “If you heard him [al-Sheikh] talking in a closed room, you would feel that you are talking to an Israeli soldier… (These) are the words of some significant leaders of Fatah.”
Many believe that al-Sheikh’s appointment was a directive from the Israeli regime to Abbas — perhaps even an ultimatum.
It is thus important to connect al-Sheikh’s appointment to the broader context of political decline in the West Bank and the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
The Palestinian Authority has come under pressure from foreign donors and Arab regimes to implement political reforms, particularly as it positions itself to take power in Gaza in a post-Hamas scenario.
Rather than pursue genuine structural reforms, Abbas has opted to reshuffle his government. In addition to al-Sheikh’s appointment, this included the selection of a new prime minister, Muhammad Mustafa, last year.
So far, these cosmetic changes, alongside the PA’s intensifying crackdown on Palestinian armed resistance groups, appear to have satisfied external pressure.
With Israel, however, the PA’s performance in the northern West Bank has not been enough to fully prove its continued compliance. Still, installing al-Sheikh as Abbas’s heir apparent strengthens its standing with its overlords.
Internally, it’s another story. Public disdain for the PA continues to grow, particularly as it is seen to have been impotent during the past 18 months of genocide in Gaza. President Abbas has even failed to utter the word genocide to describe the Israeli assault.
Meanwhile, there has been a crackdown on protests in the West Bank. In October 2023, shortly after the genocide began, PA security forces killed at least three people attending demonstrations for Gaza, including a 12-year-old girl. The PA is also widely seen as complicit in the ethnic cleansing of Jenin refugee camp at the start of 2025.
Indeed, before the Israeli army’s “Operation Iron Wall,” which saw a large-scale invasion of refugee camps in the northern West Bank, the PA laid siege to Jenin and cleared it of resistance group weapons.
In a December 2023 poll, 60% of respondents said they wanted to see the PA dissolved entirely. In the same poll, only 1% said they wanted al-Sheikh to succeed Abbas as president.
What’s clear is that the current political leadership and structure remain in place only through the absence of any democratic process and the enforcement of severe political repression.
In what is undoubtedly the worst moment in Palestinian history, where bombs continue to tear bodies apart in Gaza, and most states grant impunity to the Israeli regime, the Palestinian people deserve a leadership that represents them and promises to continue the struggle for liberation, not an empty spectacle of political reform and handpicked successors.
