Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas turns 90 on Saturday, still holding authoritarian power in tiny pockets of the West Bank, but marginalised and weakened by Israel, deeply unpopular among Palestinians, and struggling for a say in a post-war Gaza Strip.
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The world’s second-oldest serving president – after Cameroon’s 92-year-old Paul Biya – Abbas has been in office for 20 years, and for nearly the entire time has failed to hold elections. His weakness has left Palestinians leaderless, critics say, at a time when they face an existential crisis and hopes for establishing a Palestinian state, the centrepiece of Abbas’ agenda, appear dimmer than ever.
Palestinians say Israel’s campaign against Hamas that has decimated Gaza amounts to genocide. Israel denies the accusation and has tightened its lock on the West Bank, where Jewish settlements are expanding and attacks by settlers on Palestinians are increasing. Right-wing allies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are pressing for outright annexation, a step that would doom any remaining possibility for statehood.
For now, the United States has bent to Israel’s refusal to allow Abbas’ Palestinian Authority to govern post-war Gaza. With no effective leader, critics fear Palestinians in the territory will be consigned to live under an international body dominated by Israel’s allies, with little voice and no real path to statehood.
Abbas “has put his head in the sand and has taken no initiative”, said Khalil Shikaki, head of the People’s Company for Polls and Survey Research, a Palestinian pollster.
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“His legitimacy was depleted long ago,” Shikaki said. “He has become a liability to his own party, and for the Palestinians as a whole.”
Within the pockets of the West Bank that it administers, the Palestinian Authority is notorious for corruption. Abbas rarely leaves his headquarters in the city of Ramallah, except to travel abroad. He limits decision-making to his tight inner circle, including Hussein al-Sheikh, a long-time confidant whom he named as his designated successor in April.