The Palestine Liberation Organization has a vice president for the first time, putting Hussein al-Sheikh in position to eventually succeed President Mahmoud Abbas. The appointment of Abbas' longtime aide and confidant was announced Saturday, AFP reports, two days after the position was created. The move doesn't guarantee that al-Sheikh will follow Abbas, 89, but it gives him an advantage over potential rivals in the Fatah party, per the AP. He would serve in a caretaker capacity if Abbas were to die or be incapacitated in office, which one analyst said is the reason the post was created.
The PLO has faced international pressure for years to reform itself, and the AP suggests the promotion of Abbas' closest aide is unlikely to ease the criticism of many Palestinians that Fatah is a closed and corrupt movement whose leaders are out of touch with them. Polls show al-Sheikh, 64, is just as unpopular as other Fatah leaders. He most recently has been secretary-general of the PLO's executive committee and has worked in the Palestinian security forces. As a youth, he spent 11 years in Israeli prisons. The new vice president does bring a record of good working relations with Israel and the Palestinians' Arab allies, including wealthy Gulf countries.
His relationship with Israel has brought internal criticism. "I am not a representative for Israel in the Palestinian territories," al-Sheikh told the AP on that point in 2022. "We undertake the coordination because this is the prelude to a political solution for ending the occupation." Several Palestinian factions make up the PLO, but it does not include the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which engaged in the war with Israel. (More Palestinian Authority stories.)
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