Abbas seen positioning son for Palestinian leadership, dismaying those seeking new blood |
A series of announcements by official Palestinian Authority institutions this month have ignited speculation that Yasser Abbas, the millionaire son of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, may be being positioned to vie for his aging father’s post.
The younger Abbas, 64, holds no formal position within the PA, has never participated in Palestinian politics and spends most of his time outside the West Bank.
Yet official statements in recent days have detailed meetings Abbas recently held with the commander of the Palestinian police, the governor of the Palestinian central bank, and the leadership of the Palestinian Pension Authority, which oversees pensions for public-sector employees, among other sit-downs.
The communiques name Abbas as “special presidential envoy,” though the PA presidential office never formally announced appointing him to such a role.
The sudden thrusting of the elder Abbas’s son into the center of Ramallah’s politics and policy has stoked angry suspicions that the 90-year-old Palestinian leader is seeking to groom him as the next leader of Fatah — the party that controls the PA — after 20 years of holding onto power by refusing to hold elections.
The son, who spends most of his time in Canada, has made a fortune in recent decades via a number of companies he owns in the telecommunications, contracting, and finance sectors.
His critics have long accused him and his brother Tarek, also a businessman, of using public funds to fuel their businesses, allegations both men reject. Mahmoud Abbas has also faced years of corruption allegations.
Online commenters have pilloried Mahmoud Abbas for what they see as another misuse of state powers, describing the PA as “the Abbas state” and accusing him of acting like an emir in a Gulf monarchy where power is transferred by heredity.
On May 4, the independent Palestinian anti-corruption watchdog Aman demanded the PA clarify Yasser Abbas’s appointment as a special presidential envoy, arguing that in light of the “broad criticism” surrounding the move, clear criteria for such appointments should be made public.
So far, neither the Palestinian Authority nor the PA president’s office has addressed the criticism.
The PA did not respond to a request for comment from The Times of Israel.
In what some see as a first step toward a leadership role, the younger Abbas is expected to seek one of 18 seats on Fatah’s Central Committee being contested during a party conference in Ramallah on May 14-16, its first such gathering in almost 10 years, sources familiar with his plans said.
In recent weeks, he has held meetings........