Mahmoud abbas biography of william

Personal Profile. Oxford Reference. Publications Pages Publications Pages. Recently viewed 0 Save Search. Share Link Copy this link, or click below to email it to a friend. Your current browser may not support copying via this button. Sign in Get help with access You could not be signed in, please check and try again. Attempts since to establish a PLO-Hamas unity government have not been successful.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. All rights reserved. Further consolidating his power, Abbas also was elected president of the PA on 9 January with 62 percent of the votes. The third, Fatah chairman, was assumed in November by long-time Fatah figure Faruq Qaddumi, who actually wields little influence within the group. Abbas has retained those two posts ever since.

Abbas was deeply influenced over the decades by his refugee experience. His commitment to, and lengthy involvement in, the Palestinian national movement stems from his having lived in exile for most of his life since his family fled Safad when he was thirteen years old. Like many of his generation, wealth and success elsewhere in the Arab world never could erase the longing to return home.

While most Palestinian refugees in the s placed their political hopes in the leaders of the Arab world to defeat Israel for them and open the door to return, Abbas was one of a small group of lower-middle-class and professional Palestinians living in the Arab Gulf countries who chose instead the path of self-liberation. The organization they established, Fatah, was unique at the time of its establishment in the late s in proposing that Palestinians wage their own military struggle against Israel.

Fatah thereafter played the leading role in shaping the modern Palestinian national movement. Fatah went on to control the PLO in , where its refugee leadership subsequently spent decades trying to translate their desire to return to Palestine into concrete actions to make this happen. While never himself a combatant, Abbas was a central figure in Fatah for decades, translating the bitterness of his personal exile into the nationalist campaign for creation of a Palestinian state.

Abbas's experiences with Fatah and the PLO over the years also showed him, however, that an Arab and Palestinian armed struggle never would lead to a Palestinian state and the return of the refugees because Israel, time and time again, defeated all Arab military challenges to its power. He came to realize that ultimately only diplomacy would lead to the Palestinians' realizing at least some of their national aspirations.

Like those of other Fatah founders, his lower-middle-class origins and conservative Muslim background also shaped his overall conservative, pragmatic worldview, in marked contrast to some of the expansive, revolutionary views held over the years by Palestinian activists from different social backgrounds. Abbas has made two major contributions to the Palestinian national movement and the wider Middle East.

The first has been his pioneering efforts on behalf of a negotiated, peaceful settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Considered a moderate and a pragmatist, Abbas laid the basis for his involvement in diplomacy long before the Israeli-Palestinian peace process that began with the Madrid Conference in October In the s he met with Israeli peace activists like Uri Avnery and former general Mattiyahu Peled, with whom he signed the "Principles of Peace" document in January that spoke of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Israel alongside a Palestinian state.

In during the first Intifada, he was engaged in secret talks with Israelis through the help of Dutch intermediaries. After helping form Fatah, al-Wazir became deeply involved in military action against Israel starting in the early s. More than anyone else, it was al-Wazir who shaped the theory and practice of Palestinian armed struggle.

Arafat chose Abbas to coordinate Palestinian participation in the public peace talks at the October Madrid Peace Conference convened by the United States and the Soviet Union and that continued in Washington until At that time, neither Israel nor the U. Abbas's major contribution came in directing the top-secret, direct talks between PLO and Israeli negotiators carried out in Oslo, Norway, that eventually produced the Oslo Accord in August and the establishment of the PA in July The failure of the incremental steps toward a permanent peace set in motion by the Oslo process disappointed many Palestinians.

Abbas's fellow exiles felt betrayed by the PLO, which they criticized for selling out by abandoning armed struggle to participate in a process restricted by Israeli and American constraints, a process they believed was designed to prevent their right to return to their pre homes. In the West Bank and Gaza, the process did not lead to full statehood for the PA, nor did it even halt continued Israeli seizures of Palestinian land and construction of Jewish settlements in the territories.

Mutual suspicion and violence weakened the peace process in the mid- to lates and culminated in the explosion of the second Intifada in September , the Israeli reoccupation of parts of the territories, and the effective end to the Oslo process. Abbas has been the central figure in revived peace talks starting in Believing that he, unlike Arafat, was willing to rein in anti-Israeli militants and resume negotiations, the United States and Israel agreed to a return to the talks that had ended in January , but only with Abbas and not Arafat.

Within hours of Abbas's assuming the position of prime minister on 29 April , the United States announced details of a new peace initiative, called the Roadmap to Peace, that would pick up where the Oslo process had failed. Bush also quickly invited Abbas to a summit meeting with Israeli prime minister ariel sharon and Jordanian king abdullah ii bin hussein in Aqaba, Jordan, in June , and to a meeting with him at the White House the following month.

In the run-up to the January PA presidential elections, Abbas called on Palestinians to end the violence of the second Intifada. However, the violence continued. Abbas's efforts were hampered both by anti-Israeli attacks mounted by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, among others, and by Israeli attacks and Israel's ongoing construction of a "security barrier" within Palestinian territory, inside the internationally recognized border between Israel and the Occupied Territories.

Furthermore, Israel's unilateral withdrawal of its settlements from Gaza, completed in August , indicated that it was abandoning hope of reaching a deal with the Palestinians, preferring instead to go its own way. Yet perhaps Abbas's most serious challenge to peacemaking was the stunning Hamas victory in the 25 January elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council.

The elections ended Fatah's dominance of the council and PA politics and represented a major blow to its standing in the Palestinian body politic generally. It also brought into electoral power a movement that opposed the Road Map and indeed any talks with Israel. On 19 February Hamas leader ismail haniyeh became the new PA prime minister, worsening Abbas's dilemmas by precipitating a cutoff in aid from the United States and other countries which formally list Hamas as a terrorist organization.

There, Abbas and Olmert agreed to negotiate a peace treaty by the end of that would outline how Arab Palestine would become an independent country. At the summit, Abbas declared emotionally that it was time for the two sides to confront the toughest issues between them. And if it were to be repeated, it might not enjoy the same unanimity and impetus.

However, the peace talks soon hit several snags. Abbas and Olmert continued to talk, with another meeting between the two leaders scheduled for early June of Washington Post, September 30, , p. B4; May 25, He is the leader of Fatah, the nationalist Palestinian political wing whose principal rival, the Islamic Hamas, gained legislative control of the Authority early in His leadership "was meant to open a new, post-Yasir Afarat chapter in Israeli-Palestinian relations in which the peace plan known as the road-map was meant to lead both sides towards resolution," the British Broadcasting Corporation wrote on its BBC News website.

On the other, the power struggle with Arafat—who had refused to hand over crucial powers to Mr. Abbas—limited his ability to act and took up much of his time. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in His family moved to Syria in , during the Arab-Israeli war that erupted after the United Nations recognized Israel by dividing Palestine into Jewish and Arab states.

He worked variously as a laborer and schoolteacher before obtaining his bachelor of arts degree from Damascus University. After studying law in Egypt, he earned his Ph. Abbas co-founded Fatah with Arafat in the s while in exile in Qatar, where he was a personnel director in the civil service. He helped recruit several Palestinians who would become important PLO operatives.

Abbas has also been a member of the Palestine National Council since Over the years Abbas worked best behind the scenes. He raised considerable money for the organization in the s and was also a security operative. In Arafat named him head of the PLO's subdivision for national and international relations. Critics said he understated the number of Jewish deaths during the Holocaust and accused some Jews of working with the Nazi regime.

Abbas drew widespread praise for his role in the Oslo talks that resulted in the accord in which Israelis and the PLO agreed on mutual recognition. President Bill Clinton. Abbas has overseen the PLO's negotiating affairs department since In the PLO elevated him to second in command behind Arafat. In March of , Arafat, under pressure from the administration of U.

President George W. Bush, appointed Abbas as the first prime minister of the Palestinian Authority. The White House had frozen Arafat out of peace talks. Craig Nelson, in the Australian-based newspaper The Age , summarized the degree of difficulty in Abbas's juggling act. The president of the United States is pressing you to stop Islamic militant groups from carrying out suicide bombings.

The man sitting across from you at the negotiating table—the hawkish, settlement-building Israeli prime minister , Ariel Sharon —represents everything you have fought against during your career," Nelson wrote in a profile on Abbas. Abbas quit as prime minister after four months of struggles with Arafat over control of Palestinian security forces.

Ahmed Qurei succeeded him. Abbas became PLO chairman after Arafat died in November of , and two months later he was easily elected Palestinian Authority president. The United States and Israel looked favorably upon Abbas, who distanced himself from the terror groups and was one of the first Palestinian leaders to recognize Israel's right to exist.

But in and , Abbas's internal struggles intensified. While Fatah, through Abbas, controlled the presidency, Hamas took legislative control of the Palestinian Authority in January of The following December, Abbas said he would call early elections, including that of his own office, as a way of settling the political disputes that had escalated into violence during the year.

Hamas officials, however, said they would not agree to a new election so early in the four-year term, and questioned Abbas's right to call such an election. The president's call is illegitimate. Some observers said Abbas's move was crafted to pressure Hamas to renew stalled talks about a coalition government. It is predicated, they said, on several variables, including the Bush administration earmarking considerable time on the Israeli-Palesntinian conflict and negotiating concessions out of Israel.

They cited Abbas's appointment as prime minister and election as president. At the time of writing, Palestinians are still waiting," they wrote. Five days before Blair spoke, gunmen ambushed the entourage of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, wounding his son. In addition, a security official working for Abbas was seriously wounded in another shooting.

Killings continued despite an announced ceasefire. Abbas stood by his call for early elections. Hamas has nearly two-thirds of the seats in the Legislative Council. According to the UPI, a poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in December of said if an election were held then, Fatah would get 42 percent of the votes and Hamas 36 percent—and the gap had been widening of late.

In addition, the poll said, a presidential election would be too close to call, with Abbas receiving 46 percent, Haniyeh 45 percent, and about nine percent undecided. Abbas's tactic in threatening to call early elections was to prove Hamsas's policies hurt the Palestinians. Olmert had taken over as prime minister after Sharon suffered an incapacitating stroke the previous January.

It was the first meeting between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in nearly two years. Olmert's office, according to the newspaper, released a statement saying the pair had agreed to meet more frequently, and agreed "the time has come to advance the peace process via concrete steps. The two parties, however, had still not agreed on a prisoner release, a major contention point.

Olmert would not free Palestinian prisoners unless the Palestinians would do likewise with Israeli soldier Corporal Gilad Shalit, who has been detained in the Gaza Strip since Hamas militants and two affiliated groups corralled him in a raid the previous June. Abbas announced that Rice would visit the Middle East in January of , as a follow-up to her meetings with Abbas and Olmert late in He said he would float the idea of a "back channel" for negotiations with Israel.

Abbas and Egypt, a pivotal moderator, favor bypassing the prescribed U. Toameh added: "Ever since Fatah lost the election about one year ago, its leaders have been too busy searching for ways to return to power at any cost. Abbas and his wife, Amina, have three sons, Mazen, Yaser, and Tareq. Abbas also has seven grandchildren. Abbas once had surgery in the United States for prostate cancer.

Abbas, Mahmoud gale. Learn more about citation styles Citation styles Encyclopedia. Mahmoud Abbas Born on March 26, Safed, Palestine President of Palestine Political activist For over forty years, Palestinian politician Mahmoud Abbas has been the quiet, reasonable man behind the high theater of Palestinian politics. When he was elected president of the Palestinian Authority on January 9, , many hoped that Abbas's quiet pragmatism, or practical "There is absolutely no substitution for dialogue.

Fled Palestine, then organized Palestinians Only the sketchiest details are known about Abbas's birth and upbringing. Holocaust Denial?

Mahmoud abbas biography of william

Can Abbas rescue the Palestinian Authority? Through Secret Channels. Reading, UK: Garnet, Web Sites "Mahmoud Abbas. Career C o-founded Fatah, ; elected to Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee and named head of PLO national and international relations department, ; negotiated Oslo Accords , ; prime minister of Palestinian National Authority, April resigned, September ; elected president of the Palestinian National Authority, Sidelights M ahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian National Authority, has worked for years to achieve an independent Palestinian Arab nation and a peace agreement with Israel.

Sources Periodicals Newsweek, December 6, , p. Battled Frequently with Hamas The United States and Israel looked favorably upon Abbas, who distanced himself from the terror groups and was one of the first Palestinian leaders to recognize Israel's right to exist. More From encyclopedia. About this article Mahmoud Abbas All Sources -. Updated Aug 13 About encyclopedia.

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