Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) is the head of the Palestinian National Authority as well as the Fatah Movement. He is currently facing a major challenge to his authority as his legitimacy is being disputed due to recent developments among which are his decision to delay the first Palestinian elections to be held in 15 years, his sidelined position on last Gaza war in May, and finally the recent crackdown by his security forces against his own people. All that has seen his popularity plummeting while support for Gaza's militant Hamas rulers has grown.
Earlier this month Palestinians took to streets demonstrating against Abbas and carrying placards proclaiming that The people want the fall of the regime, Abbas leave, No for political assassinations and other slogans denouncing the corruption of the Palestinian Authority (PA). That wave of anger erupted from Hebron through Bethlehem to Ramallah, following the killing of the 43-year-old human rights activist Nizar Banat, only hours after he was arrested by security forces and beaten to death, according to his family.
Earlier, in April 2021, Abbas postponed planned elections amid a dispute over voting in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem and divisions in his Fatah party. He issued a presidential decree postponing the May 22 parliamentary and July 31 presidential elections. But many Palestinians regarded the Jerusalem issue as an excuse to avoid elections that Fatah might well lose to its Islamist rivals Hamas, as it did in the last parliamentary ballot in 2006.
Moreover, the PA occasionally cracked down on dissidents, including individuals who criticized Abbas on social media. In 2008 he quickly condemned Hamas for its role in a conflict with Israel while he was slow to condemn Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip. In 2017, after a reconciliation agreement with Hamas faltered, he imposed sanctions on the Gaza Strip which contributed to a humanitarian crisis there resulting from decade-long sanctions imposed by Israel and Egypt.
Abbas was born in the village of Safed in Palestine when it was under the British Mandate and then moved to Syria, where he enrolled at the University of Damascus. He later relocated to Cairo to study law, after which he headed to Moscow to obtain his PhD in history.
During his exile in Qatar in the late fifties, Abu Mazen contributed to the recruitment of a group of Palestinians who, in subsequent years, became key figures in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
Alongside Yasser Arafat, Abu Mazen founded the Fatah Movement and accompanied him into exile in Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia. In the early years of the movement's emergence, Abu Mazen became a respected figure because of the simplicity of his life and the cleanliness of his record.
Abu Mazen remained behind the scenes but also established a strong network of contacts with Arab leaders and heads of intelligence services. As a result, he successfully became a Palestinian ambassador who procured donations for the PLO. He assumed an important security role in the early 1970s before being appointed Director of the PLO’s National and International Relations Section in 1980.
Abu Mazen was seen as a moderate figure as he was among the main Palestinian leaders who opened a dialogue with the Jewish left-wing and peace movements in Israel during the difficult years of the 1970s, before negotiations began between Israel and the Palestinians. He was widely regarded as the architect of the Oslo Accords, and he accompanied Yasser Arafat on his visit to the White House in 1993 to sign the Oslo Accords.
As chairman of Fatah, Abbas has received criticism for filling the Central Committee with close allies, and forcing out rivals like Mohammed Dahlan and Farouk Kaddoumi. As PA president, following the Fatah-Hamas split in 2007, he was accused of eroding democratic institutions, weakening the judiciary, and entrenching the PA’s authoritarian policies. As PLO chairman, he has kept a tight grip over the Executive Committee, marginalized non-Fatah parties, and neglected the PLO’s ties to the Palestinian refugee camps.
Abbas faced criticism throughout his presidency for his authoritarianism and neglect of the Gaza Strip. Apart from ruling by presidential decree after he dismissed the legislature in 2007, he remained president long after his term expired, at first claiming he should stay an extra year in order to hold presidential and legislative elections simultaneously. But elections were continually delayed because the PA could not hold elections throughout all the Palestinian territories.
Another criticism focused on the PA forces’ security coordination with Israeli troops, targeting Hamas and other armed groups that threaten both. The policy is deeply unpopular with Palestinians, many of whom view it as collaboration with an occupying power.
