Abbas Signals Retirement, but Vies to Keep Fatah in Control of the Palestinian Authority

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At first glance, Sunday's announcement by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas appears to be a dry legal document that is actually an announcement of timing and not of fundamental change.

After months of rumors and internal pressure, Abbas, who will celebrate his 90th birthday in November, is signaling that he is finally planning his political path, or at least wants to shape the terms of his exit from it.

The man who, for 30 years, represented the "sane hope" for both Israelis and Palestinians, who, in 2012, was lauded at the UN General Assembly for the international community's recognition of a Palestinian state, is now celebrating a birthday as the Palestinian arena stands at its most paramount crossroads since 1967, perhaps even since 1948.

On the one hand, the Palestinian issue is back in the center of global consciousness. Dozens of countries, including key European and South American states, have officially recognized a Palestinian state. Hundreds of thousands are marching weekly in cities and capitals worldwide, calling for justice and an end to the occupation.

That said, there is another side. The Gaza Strip has been desolated after two years of a war of destruction, the West Bank is dismembered into Israeli-controlled areas and Palestinian society is deeply divided.

After everything the Palestinian people have experienced on both fronts, the factions, or their remnants, with an emphasis on Fatah and Hamas, remain locked in power struggles, the current leadership's legitimacy in general appears more fragile than ever, and the Palestinian public struggles to consider it as a genuine avenue for a political future.

Senior Palestinian Authority sources say that, for months, Abbas has been under heavy pressure from Arab states and Western countries to conduct thorough reforms, which would reach as far as Fatah and the presidential desk itself. In this context, he promoted Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee Secretary General Hussein al-Sheikh, as vice president.

Under the new constitutional declaration, al-Sheikh will fill the position of Palestinian Authority president for a period of up to 90 days in the event that Abbas cannot perform his duties, with the option of a one-time extension if elections cannot be held on time. Abbas also restored former foreign minister and Yasser Arafat's nephew Nasser al-Qudwa to Fatah's ranks.

Several questions crop up at this point: Is this an act of voluntary retirement or forced retirement due to Abbas' age and condition? Is al-Sheikh – who is considered very close to the president but lacks a broad popular base of support, let alone in Gaza – the man who can lead the Palestinian Authority to free elections and restore its legitimacy? Will such elections be held at all, and when?

Palestinian political history teaches that numerous "temporary" steps have become permanent: from the emergency in the Palestinian Authority, through the division between the West Bank and Gaza, to the PLO's administrative structures. This time too, people fear that the current announcement is mainly a symbolic act intended to regulate the issue of inheritance, not to solve it.

Beyond that, there are numerous political landmines: assuming that elections will be held, will they also be for the Palestinian Authority's Legislative Council? Will Hamas be eligible to participate? Will Israel allow voting in eastern Jerusalem? Each of these questions can delay the process by months or years.

Abbas' announcement also came amid reconciliation talks in Cairo between representatives of the Palestinian factions – Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other organizations, including representatives of exiled Fatah leader Mohammad Dahlan's movement.

Hussein al-Sheikh and the head of Palestinian Intelligence, Majed Faraj, are also participating in discussions. The talks, being held under growing Egyptian pressure, have not yielded to date any agreement on a clear political outline for the future. A senior Palestinian official said of the current status of discussions, "The car is running, but is in neutral – a lot of meetings and talks, but nothing concrete."

Meanwhile, on the ground, the occupation is spreading and the settlements are growing and the daily reality in the West Bank increasingly resembles de facto annexation. The two-state solution remains a hollow slogan as the Palestinian political system is rushing toward an unprecedented inheritance crisis.

It's possible that Abbas' constitutional announcement on Sunday was intended to display order and stability. In practice, more than anything else, it reflects the depth of the uncertainty. Is this a step before an orderly retirement, or a last attempt to anchor his camp's control on the day after, without really knowing what is left to rule over?

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-10-27/ty-article/.premium/palestinian-president-abbas-signals-retirement-but-vies-to-keep-fatah-in-control/0000019a-255b-dcd3-abdb-ad7f847f0000

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