PLO affirms Abbas, 83, as unchallenged leader
RAMALLAH, West Bank — The PLO affirmed 83-year-old Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as its unchallenged leader, gave new powers to a decision-making body stacked with his loyalists and pushed out remaining dissenters in a carefully staged four-day convention that ended Friday.
The decisions by the parliament of the Palestine Liberation Organization also opened the door to a possible path of succession — even though Abbas has blocked any discussion about what will happen when he leaves the political stage.
The session of the PLO parliament — theoretically meant to represent Palestinians everywhere — cemented the shift of power to the West Bankbased Abbas and his inner circle.
Critics say that in the absence of general elections, the PLO serves largely to lend a thin veneer of political legitimacy to Abbas’ increasingly authoritarian rule over autonomous enclaves in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The parliament, or Palestinian National Council, also instructed another PLO leadership body to suspend recognition of Israel and declared that it is no longer bound by obligations stemming from interim peace deals with Israel.
Despite such declarations, Abbas and the PLO leadership have stopped short of ending the pillar of the current, practical relationship with Israel — security coordination in the West Bank against a shared foe, the Islamic militant Hamas.
Prospects for resuming negotiations with Israel after a decade of diplomatic paralysis are close to zero — at a time when Israel’s rightist government and the Trump administration pursue policies Abbas considers to be deal breakers.
Abbas suspended contacts with U.S. officials after President Trump recognized contested Jerusalem as the Israeli capital in December.