To mark the 29th anniversary of the Oslo Accords, in about two weeks, a new report reveals the steps taken by Palestinian Authority Chairman Abu Mazen, which could turn the Palestinian Authority into a dictatorship.
The report was compiled by the "Palestinian Media View" Institute, which has been following what is happening in the Palestinian Authority almost since its foundation in 1994. It states that during the past four years, "Abu Mazen has made decisions and implemented fundamental changes in the Palestinian political system, the cumulative goal of which is to completely abolish what is left of Palestinian democracy, and replace the institutions of the Palestinian Authority with the Palestine Liberation Organization."
The first step taken by the Authority's chairman was structural changes in the PLO, which gave him increased control.
The Palestinian National Council, which is the PLO's legislative institution, hardly ever convened. To ease his control, he made sure that the National Council transfers its powers to the Palestinian Central Committee in May 2018. This body is much smaller and more easily controlled.
In December 2018, Mahmoud Abbas dissolved the Palestinian Legislative Council, which functioned as a type of parliament after Hamas won the 2006 elections. Abu Mazen promised that new parliamentary elections would be held six months after its dissolution, but these were never held.
A demonstration in Hebron against the Palestinian government (archive, 2022), photo: AFP
In February 2019, Chairman Abbas initiated another change: he abandoned the Palestinian Authority constitution as the source of executive power of the PLO and replaced it with the PLO constitution - so that only this organization could control the PA.
The final stage came in February 2022, when Abbas adopted a resolution instructing the PLO Executive Committee, headed by Abbas, to redraft the institutions of the Palestinian Authority. Even earlier, in the first half of 2021, Abbas canceled the elections for the position of Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, in which he He himself has served consecutively since 2006 - without elections.
"All the international proposals advocating the establishment of a Palestinian state emphasize that it should be democratic, but there is not much left of Palestinian democracy," says attorney Lt. Col. (ret.) Maurice Hirsch, head of the legal department at "Looking at the Palestinian Media" and editor of the study.
"The concept of Palestinian democracy has always been an oxymoron, but it has become more acute recently," explained Hirsch.
"The moves of Mahmoud Abbas should set off alarm bells in every country that financially assists the Palestinians through PA institutions. They want to believe that they are providing aid to the Palestinian people, but in fact they are sustaining the PLO and establishing the hegemony of Fatah. If the international community does not intervene and demand From Abu Mazen to return his anti-democratic moves - the result will be a further strengthening of Fatah's dictatorial rule over the Palestinian Authority."
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