By: Prof. Dr. Mohsen Mohammad Saleh.
Although the restructuring of the Palestinian National Council (PNC), the highest legislative body of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), is a widely supported and urgent Palestinian demand, President Mahmud ‘Abbas’s call for its election appears to have been stillborn!!
On 19/7/2025, ‘Abbas issued a decree, based on a decision by the PLO Executive Committee two days earlier, calling for elections to the PNC before the end of 2025, on a date to be set by ‘Abbas himself. The decree stipulated that the PNC would consist of 350 members, two-thirds of whom would come from the West Bank (WB) and Gaza Strip (GS). However, membership was conditioned on adherence to the PLO’s political program, its international commitments, and international legitimacy, effectively requiring candidates to accept the Oslo Accords and all ensuing obligations. These include recognizing Israel, relinquishing most of historic Palestine, rejecting armed resistance, and committing exclusively to peaceful means. Moreover, ‘Abbas placed the formation of the preparatory committee under his own control, i.e., under Fatah’s dominance.
The decision sparked anger among Palestinian factions, grassroots movements, prominent figures, and independents, particularly among resistance factions opposed to the Oslo Accords and critical of the “unilateral mindset” adopted by ‘Abbas and the Fatah leadership. They have been calling for putting the Palestinian political house in order based on genuine representative foundations.
Deepening the Palestinian Impasse:
Everyone is aware of the grave existential challenges facing the Palestine issue today, as it faces erasure and cancellation amid the escalation of Israeli annexation and displacement projects, alongside Israel’s disregard for the Oslo Accords, all international resolutions and peace process initiatives. Everyone also knows the deteriorating condition of the PLO, which has become more akin to one of the directorates within the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA); meanwhile, it suffers from a leadership crisis, institutional weaknesses and ineffectiveness, a depletion of its activist content, domination by a faction monopolizing power and closing the doors to reform, loss of vision, direction, and priority management, marginalization of the Palestinian external community… and more.
‘Abbas and his team have driven a new nail into the coffin of the “Palestinian national project” with their call for elections, which appears more like an attempt to reorganize “Fatah’s” control over the PLO rather than truly putting the Palestinian political house in order. This decision has been criticized for the following reasons:
1. It contradicts all Palestinian agreements signed by Fatah and Hamas over the past twenty years, including those in Cairo (2005, 2011, 2017 and 2021), Algeria (2022), and the Moscow and Beijing meetings between 2019 and 2024. These agreements called for reforming or rebuilding the PLO and establishing a new PNC with the participation of all Palestinian factions, including Hamas and the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine (PIJ), based on democratic and participatory principles that ensure genuine representation. This was to be achieved through elections wherever possible, by consensus when elections are not feasible, and through a unified preparatory committee. Several agreements also proposed forming a “Interim Leadership Framework” to oversee the interim period until a new PNC is formed.
2. It excludes Hamas, PIJ and other resistance forces that reject Oslo from the right to participate and vote, as it conditions participation on adherence to the Oslo Accords and their related obligations. These forces represent a significant segment of the Palestinian people. This decision contradicts the Palestinian National Charter (the PLO’s constitution), which considers all Palestinians natural members of the organization regardless of their political or ideological views.
3. It monopolizes control over the preparatory committee, failing to guarantee genuine partnership with the active Palestinian factions involved, thereby undermining the transparency of the elections.
4. It disregards the Interim Leadership Framework, imposing ‘Abbas and Fatah’s dominance over the procedures, and paves the way for “rigging the results.”
5. It deepens the Palestinian schism by sidelining the active forces on the ground, effectively producing a “fabricated” version of the Palestinian popular will.
6. It provides an ideal opportunity for enemies and adversaries to advance their plans to erase the Palestine issue.
If the PLO leadership is set to reproduce its corrupt, weak and authoritarian regime that ignores its people, it is no surprise that this call for elections is “stillborn”!!
A Catastrophic Reading of Reality:
The PLO leadership suffers from a catastrophic misreading of reality, resulting in policies that weaken the Palestinian national project. We face an entrenched leadership that believes it has the luxury of time to maneuver and bypass Palestinian consensus, with a profound disregard for the gravity of the current phase and a stubborn insistence on a mentality of exclusivity and monopolization, at a time when we desperately need to mobilize and unify all Palestinian forces, both inside and outside, and to rebuild the PLO and its institutions in a strong and effective manner.
Such leadership makes one feel it is not only devoid of true legitimacy but also disconnected from the popular base, its concerns and priorities. In fact, it seems out of touch with the flow of history itself!!
This leadership avoids deriving its legitimacy from its grassroots within the national equation and instead relies on external Arab and international crutches that support its hold on power due to its alignment with the peace process, opposition to the resistance axis, distancing from “political Islam,” and readiness to offer further concessions.
For example:
1. The PLO leadership (namely, the PA and Fatah leadership) continues to ignore the fact that Israel has effectively bypassed the Oslo Accords. The current extremist Israeli government is carrying out the “Decisive Plan” aimed at annexing Jerusalem and the rest of the WB, while fragmenting the PA into isolated cantons. The most recent step was the Knesset’s 23 July 2025 vote to pass a bill applying Israeli sovereignty to the WB, in preparation for annexation. The bill passed with 71 votes in favor and only 13 against.
Nevertheless, the PA leadership persists in upholding its “commitments” and playing its functional role in serving Israel, by pursuing resistance forces and maintaining security coordination with Israel to suppress the Palestinian population in the WB.
2. The PLO leadership continues to ignore the major responsibilities imposed by Operation al-Aqsa Flood and Israel’s assault on GS, which involved horrific massacres and the destruction of schools, hospitals, universities, mosques, churches and vital infrastructure, alongside a brutal campaign of siege and starvation… Rather than confronting these urgent challenges, the PLO leadership remains entangled in petty disputes with Hamas and the resistance forces… A particularly shameful example has been its security forces, through Bahaa Baalousha and Fayez Abu Hanoud, backing the militia of the collaborator Yasir Abu Shabab, known as the “Popular Forces,” which operates under Israeli military supervision, loots aid intended for the people of GS, and attacks the resistance. Meanwhile, the PA leadership focuses not on confronting Israel, but on presenting itself as a viable substitute to Hamas, one that is acceptable to Israel and the US by meeting their conditions and standards.
3. Amid Operation al-Aqsa Flood, the Palestinian leadership formed a new government for the PA in Ramallah, led by Muhammad Mustafa (31/3/2024), in a unilateral and exclusionary move, at a time when Palestinian consensus was critically needed.
In doing so, the PA, driven by a short-sighted and self-serving agenda, is effectively helping Israel dig the PA’s own grave, and that of the Palestine issue, with its own hands!!
An Escape Forward:
The decision to call for elections for the PNC appears, in substance, to be an escape from the pressing realities of the Palestinian situation and from an electoral map that reflects the actual weight of Palestinian factions and forces. Over the past two years, opinion polls have consistently shown Hamas enjoying a strong lead and Fatah in clear decline. Meanwhile, an overwhelming Palestinian majority, estimated at 85–90%, has called for President ‘Abbas’s resignation and has predicted a sweeping defeat for him against any Hamas candidate or against Marwan Barghouti. Thus, moving toward this electoral step seems to respond primarily to internal Fatah arrangements and external pressure, aiming to shape the composition of the new Council and its elected Executive Committee in line with the post-‘Abbas era. ‘Abbas is now over ninety years old (born in February 1935), and the new configuration also appears designed to handle the commitments likely to emerge in the aftermath of Operation al-Aqsa Flood, ones that the US and Arab normalization states seek a Palestinian party to carry out.
It was noteworthy that the call for elections allocates two-thirds of the seats to Palestinians inside the WB and GS, contrary to the Palestinian consensus on equal representation between those inside and abroad. This not only signals the marginalization of the Palestinian diaspora, which constitutes more than half of the total Palestinian population (while the WB and GS represent about 37%), but also entrenches an environment where Palestinian decision-making is dominated under Israeli occupation. Since the 1967 war until the Oslo Accords in 1993, the PLO had carefully avoided this, as the voices of Palestinians inside the occupied territories were not counted towards the quorum.
Priorities for the Present Phase:
Given the existential threats facing the Palestine issue, putting the Palestinian political house in order has become a pressing priority. This includes reaching consensus on an interim leadership to oversee new elections and form a new PNC grounded in preserving the fundamentals. This process must no longer be a game of maneuvering, cunning and blackmail.
Therefore, a Palestinian consensus is essential to block external interference regarding the administration of GS in the post-war period, along with implementing an urgent action plan to confront the dangers of the Judaization of the al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem, as well as the risks of annexation and displacement in the WB and GS.
Moreover, halting security coordination, stopping the pursuit of the resistance, insisting on preserving the resistance’s arms, lifting the siege on the depths of GS, and breaking Israel’s will through a stronger Palestinian will, all these are requirements of the current phase and prerequisites for ending the aggression against the Palestinian people and ending Israeli occupation.
Al-Zaytouna Centre for Studies and Consultations, 28/7/2025
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