PALESTINIAN LEADERS

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Who are the leaders of the Palestinian Arabs?

The Palestinian Arabs have a self-selected leader, Yasser Arafat, who rose to power by taking control of the Fatah organization that later merged into the Palestine Liberation Organization. Since Arafat became the leader of Fatah in 1956, there has been no one else speaking for the Palestinians, at least not without Arafat's permission.

Yasser Arafat was named as the president of the Palestinian state proclaimed in Algiers in 1988 by the Palestine National Council. The Oslo Accords, signed in Washington on September 13, 1993 defined the institutions of the Palestinian Authority, to provide a government for the Palestinian Arabs until replaced by a Palestinian state under the final status agreements. Yasser Arafat was elected as the first president of the Palestinian Authority in January 1996. The election was tightly controlled with only token opposition; as expected, Arafat won with a large majority. No further elections have been held.

With Arafat over 70 years old, and sometimes in the line of fire, the question is raised about possible successors. Although various names are discussed, like Marwan Barghouti, it is very hard to make predictions in such a fluid situation. Many of the Palestinian Arabs who have a known reputation are associated with terrorist groups like Hamas or the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and would not be acceptable to other countries; in fact, the Israelis have some of these on their wanted list and will jail them if they can capture them. There is no opposition party, or moderate faction, because such people are suppressed in the Arafat dictatorship. When Arafat actually leaves the scene, from whatever cause, there will no doubt be a power struggle among the Palestinian "leadership:. The result of that struggle cannot be predicted ahead of time.

Sources and additional reading on this topic:

• Palestinians try democratic elections as Israel watches
• Arafat, Elected?
• Yasser Arafat
• Who, or what, will replace Yasser Arafat?
• Yasser Arafat and the Myth of Legitimacy