By: Prof. Dr. Mohsen Mohammad Saleh.
The “red card” will be raised against you if you make a serious attempt to reform or rebuild the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The “custodians” who monopolize “legitimacy” will accuse you of conspiracy and cast you out of the national fold if you engage in any collective effort to advance the cause of reforming the organization.
There is a strange insistence by the PLO leadership to keep it a lifeless body in the “intensive care unit,” only bringing it to life when needed to cover the leadership’s actions or to rubber-stamp its decisions. There are no active institutions, no functioning departments, no representation of the people and their concerns, and no integration of the vast talents and capabilities of the Palestinian people, with nearly complete exclusion of Palestinians abroad.
This unfolds during the most difficult and painful period in Palestinian history, where efforts at erasure and elimination are underway; where horrific massacres are committed, blood is spilled and the Israel leaves no stone unturned in Gaza Strip (GS). It is a time when al-Aqsa mosque, Jerusalem and the West Bank (WB) are being Judaized, and plans for annexation and displacement escalate, including the closure of the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) file itself. Meanwhile, the “chronic” official leadership remains detached from both the flow of life and the course of history.
For nearly twenty years, the author of these lines, alongside hundreds and thousands of Palestinian figures, symbols and national forces, has worked to advance the reorganization of Palestinian affairs based on principles of integrity, transparency and genuine popular representation. Hundreds of conferences and discussion sessions have been held, and dozens of petitions signed, yet the results so far have amounted to “zero”!! The problem has never been with the ideas, mechanisms or popular environments… Rather, the real obstacle has always been the PLO leadership (which is also the leadership of the PA and Fatah).. The core issue lies in the lack of genuine will for reform.
In the following lines, we will attempt to summarize the key dilemmas caused by the “Palestinian Legitimacy” leadership:
1. The Dilemma of Blurring the Line Between the Leadership and the PLO: This is an artificial conflation that deliberately mixes the political and moral standing, roles, tasks and institutions of the PLO with its leadership, which is a temporary entity subject to criticism, accountability and potential change. Similar to King Louis XIV, who ruled nearly four centuries ago and embodied absolute monarchy with his famous declaration, “L’Etat, c’est moi” or “I am the state,” criticism of the leadership is equated with an attack on the PLO itself. The PLO controllers grant themselves a status not authorized by either the PLO’s own regulations or the will of the Palestinian people. This makes any reform effort complicated and nearly unattainable. The PLO legitimacy does not necessarily imply the legitimacy of its leadership, especially when that leadership exceeds its legal term, overrides regulations and disregards the popular will.
2. The Dilemma of Equating Reform Efforts with Attempts at Elimination: The PLO leadership is highly sensitive to any sincere collective Palestinian effort aimed at activating, reforming or rebuilding the PLO, or at exposing its weaknesses, shortcomings and failures. Such efforts—whether calling for transparent, fair elections or advocating for a national consensus that accurately reflects the power of active forces on the ground and effectively includes Palestinians inside and outside the homeland—are viewed as threats to the organization’s legitimacy. Regardless of how national or sincere these efforts may be, supported by prominent Palestinian figures, symbols and groups, the leadership and its agents will label them as conspiracies against the PLO’s status and legitimacy. In the eyes of such a leadership, those who wish for the PLO to regain its strength, glory and vitality are grouped with the Zionists and Americans who seek to eliminate and erase the PLO, thereby closing the Palestinian file. In reality, however, keeping the PLO in its current, marginalized and ineffective state serves the enemies of Palestine and its cause the most.
As a result, the PLO leadership has not hesitated to launch media attacks and direct accusations at organized public activities like the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad (PCPA), the 14 Million Palestinian Popular Conference, and the Palestinian National Conference (held in Doha in February 2024), etc. These initiatives reveal the leadership’s gaps and failures in fulfilling its responsibilities to the people, threatening its position and personal interests.
3. The Legitimacy of Paralysis, Not the Legitimacy of Activation: The PLO leadership (which is the Fatah Leadership) paralyzes the work of its bodies and institutions, rendering them ineffective. It reduces the PLO to just an item in the PA budget, which is under occupation. The PLO leadership monopolizes control over Palestinian unions, associations and communities abroad, keeping them in a state of “clinical death.” It prevents their reorganization and activation, denying them the ability to integrate all Palestinian factions and harness their tremendous potential in service of the Palestine issue. This applies to dozens of unions and associations abroad, such as those of doctors, engineers, teachers, students, lawyers and others. If any group attempts to activate or form union frameworks, it is immediately accused of “deviating from legitimacy” and other prepackaged, “canned” accusations.
4. Factional Legitimacy vs. Representational Legitimacy: The PLO leadership stubbornly insists on monopolizing the organization by a single Palestinian faction (Fatah). Despite the presence of other strong, active and widely popular factions in the Palestinian arena, such as Hamas and the Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine (PIJ), the leadership continues to block any genuine effort to include these factions in a way that reflects their popular weight. Instead, various pretexts and obstacles are created to marginalize them, ensuring that dominance remains in the hands of a single faction. While there is frequent talk of national unity, ending the division and implementing the Cairo Agreement, the deliberate avoidance of elections—such as in 2021—and the imposition of conditions unrelated to the PLO’s own regulations remain consistent strategies employed by this leadership.
5. Legitimacy of Seizure and Monopoly of Decision-Making: The current leadership de facto controls the PLO, blocking any elections that would accurately reflect the true balance of Palestinian forces. It disregards the temporary leadership framework and, despite being aware from all opinion polls that it does not represent the majority of Palestinians, both inside and outside the homeland, it continues to assert control over all sovereign and constitutional powers—even those that impact the highest interests of the Palestinian people. In doing so, it speaks on behalf of all, often against the will of the people.
6. Oslo Legitimacy, Not National Charter Legitimacy: Membership in the PLO is no longer tied to adherence to the Palestine National Charter or to the Palestinian fundamentals. This shift occurred because the PLO leadership itself facilitated the suspension of the Charter and the removal of its clauses that conflicted with the peace process. The leadership also relinquished most of Palestine to Israel and abandoned the Palestinian people’s right to armed resistance, even committing to coordination with Israel and actively pursuing resistance groups. Furthermore, it conditioned entry into the PLO on accepting its commitments to Israel, making the disastrous Oslo Accords paramount over the principles and foundations on which the PLO was originally founded!!
The effort to pull the PLO out of the Oslo Accords quagmire and restore it to its original purpose has become the accusation, while taking opposing actions has become the slogan of “national work” for this leadership
7. Legitimacy of Extension and Perpetuation: With the doors closed to the participation of influential and significant forces in the Palestinian arena, and with the Palestine National Council’s (PNC) work effectively paralyzed—having convened only three times in 34 years (since 1991) under Israeli occupation, in a procedural and functional manner (1996, 2009 and 2018)—the PLO leadership has been left to extend its mandate and fill vacancies as needed. This has occurred in the absence of any active environment that would allow for a genuine transfer of power or introduce youthful energy into Palestinian executive and legislative leadership.
8. The Legitimacy of External Crutches in the Face of Popular Will: While the PLO leadership avoids any electoral processes that would truly reflect the free will of the Palestinian people, it bases its legitimacy on official recognition from Arab, international and even Israeli sources. This legitimacy is further reinforced by the opposition of these entities to the resistance movement and “political Islam” movements. The leadership exploits this “advantage” to impose a fait accompli on influential Palestinian forces and to suppress popular will. Naturally, the price of maintaining such “approval” and “legitimacy” is enormous!! as it is legitimacy crafted to suit the preferences of normalizationists, opponents and enemies, and shaped according to their standards.
9. Legitimacy Under Occupation: This legitimacy is exercised under the roof of occupation and under its watchful eyes. The executive leadership holds its meetings under occupation, as do both the Palestinian Central Council (PCC) and the PNC. So how can the “independent Palestinian national decision” be preserved?! How can more than half of the Palestinian people, living abroad, be adequately represented?! And how can the “liberation” project be managed when those occupiers work relentlessly to uproot the Palestinian people, oppress them, seize their land and sanctities and forcibly displace them?!
Before the Oslo Accords, the PLO recognized the risks of occupation pressure, which is why it held all its meetings abroad. Representation of Palestinians from the occupied territories in the PNC was around 180 members, but their names were kept undisclosed, attendance was not mandatory, and they were not included in the quorum, as they were under occupation.
10. From Resistance Legitimacy to the Resistance of Resistance: The PLO was established to liberate Palestine from the river to the sea through armed struggle, and Fatah assumed leadership of the PLO due to its resistance efforts. However, after Oslo Accords, the legitimacy of leadership shifted towards the “resistance of resistance”—which involved restricting armed struggle, coordinating with Israel to pursue and suppress resistance fighters, even amidst the massacres and destruction in GS, as well as the atmosphere of Judaization, displacement, and the humiliation and weakening of the PA in WB.
We are now facing a decisive historical moment, with our wounds bleeding everywhere as we confront the challenges of annexation, displacement and elimination. We need a visionary leadership, one with high dynamism, capable of mobilizing the Palestinian people and its institutions, as well as rallying the Arab and Muslim nations (Ummah) and the free world to confront the Zionist project. Yet, in reality, we have been devastated (for years) by a leadership that remains out of touch with history—still clinging to the illusions of the Oslo Accords, even after Israel has moved beyond them, leaving the PA vulnerable to the winds of change. Meanwhile, more than 85% of the Palestinian people (in both WB and GS) are calling for Mahmud ‘Abbas’s resignation, according to public opinion polls.
In such circumstances, the leadership of the PLO and PA handles the most critical matters with a mentality of “failure management” and by attempting to revive a “dead horse.” It has lost both vision and direction, becoming a conduit for normalization and offering enemies and adversaries a justification that the Palestinian people are unworthy of self-rule. If the PLO leadership is concerned about “legitimacy,” it should fear losing it to its enemies, not its own people. It is unacceptable to coordinate with enemies and adversaries while ignoring the will of the people, only to later lament the loss of “legitimacy.”
The Palestinian people and its active forces have either lost hope in or are on the verge of giving up on this leadership… They no longer see any benefit in knocking on closed doors, while the accusations this leadership directs at the forces of reform and change have become stale, outdated and irrelevant. Pressuring this leadership and forcing it to open the way for rebuilding the PLO on sound principles rooted in core values has always been—and remains—a national duty. If it fails to act, there is no time to waste; it must be bypassed, and the “scarecrow of legitimacy” must be dismantled. Efforts must be made to develop pressure tools to force this leadership to step down from its position, such as forming the broadest possible national alliance, establishing a temporary transitional leadership framework, and activating popular representative institutions like unions, federations and communities, etc.
Al-Zaytouna Centre for Studies and Consultations, 8/4/2025
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