Alwaght- Recently, the Palestinian Authority’s President Mahmoud Abbas has dismissed the secretary of the Palestinian Liberation Organization's (PLO) executive committee Yasser Abed Rabbo and has appointed Saeb Erekat in his place, a move indicating future changes in the official structure of PLO, the Palestinian Authority and the Fatah movement. These developments could determine the upcoming course of PLO .
The post of secretary of the executive committee is the second high position in the PLO's framework and in case of the committee’s president’s death or resignation the secretary takes his place, as when Yasser Arafat, the former president of the Palestinian Authority, was killed by the Israeli regime, Abbas who was a secretary of the executive committee, took his position .
While celebrating his 80th birthday, Mahmoud Abbas has fired Yasser Abed Rabbo, announcing simultaneously that he had no intention to run for any national or organizational election .
Mahmoud Abbas is currently holding three posts, the chairman of the PLO, the leader of the Palestinian Fatah movement and the president of the Palestinian Authority. The presidency of Mahmoud Abbas over the Palestinian Authority expired since 2010 , and according to the Palestinian national reconciliation agreement the post should be specified by holding elections. The presidency and other official posts of Fatah movement, also, to be decided in the movement’s coming congress set to be held in December 2015 . Moreover, in the case of power vacuum in PLO due to death or resignation of the chairman, the Palestinian National Council would appoint the new chairman. Considering the Palestinian national reconciliation agreement as a base, the PLO’s structure was to be reformed after Hamas and Islamic Jihad movement joined the deal to make the organization gain more legitimacy and inclusion .
The political analysts suggest that the Saudi Arabia’s influence on PLO could worsen the Palestinian conditions .
Saeb Erekat is the member of Fatah movement who has been actively engaged in the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations for past two decades. In recent years, he has been accused of offering suggestions for reconciliation with the Israeli regime which dismiss the terms of the national parties' agreements. Moreover, Abbas and generally the Palestinian Authority have been, especially after death of Yasser Arafat in 2002 , waiting for implementation of the Oslo Accords which were signed in 1993 with the Israeli regime. However, Tel Aviv regime has consistently evaded keeping the terms of the deals with the Palestinian side, as it refrained from implementing them, an issue made Abbas threat to resign several times .
The appointment of Saeb Erekat as secretary of second top position in PLO came after the Abbas’s government has frozen and confiscated the assets of a non-governmental institute belonging to Salam Fayyaz, the former Prime Minister and a major rival to Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas also struggles to keep on subordination of the rebellious Fatah’s member Mohammad Dahlan. All these actions give rise to the debate of successions in PLO. Although, Israeli recognized PLO through signing Oslo Accords, it has blocked the establishment of the agreed-upon Palestinian state in West Bank and Gaza Strip. Tel Aviv sabotages the process of establishing the Palestinian state in order to instill the occupation of Palestine through building widespread settlements especially in al-Quds (Jerusalem ).
The most important issue about the PLO’s new appointments is that previously some of Arab countries specifically Egypt played a crucial role in determining PLO’s heads, as elections of Ahmed Al-Shaqiri, Yahya Hammmuda and Yasser Arafat happened under direct Egyptian influence. Nevertheless, Egypt has lost its position after the 2011 revolution, and the Arab world’s institutions such as Arab League dominated by Saudi Arabia’s petrodollars affacts PLO’s future tendencies and performance .
Regarding the fact that, Riyadh has established overt ties and collaborations with Israeli regime, experts believe that Saudi influence on PLO could deteriorate the Palestinian circumstances. Genuine resistant movements in Palestine such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, who consider compromising option as incompetent and inefficient, call for resistance as the only breakthrough to liberate Palestine from the Israeli occupation. To this end, they have to insist on national reconciliation agreement and reforms in PLO’s framework to block enemies' infiltration into the organization's ranks .
