2023-10-27 15:56:00
While Israel is besieging the Gaza Strip in response to the bloody attack launched by Hamas, which has controlled the enclave since 2007, what weight does Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, still have? Inaudible since the start of the conflict, the only Palestinian leader recognized by the international community, whom Emmanuel Macron visited in Ramallah, is considered disconnected from his people, whose three quarters already wanted resignation before October 7, according to the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR).
Several demonstrations broke out in the West Bank to call for his departure, with cries of “Abbas, get out”, and a press release condemning Hamas attacks against Israeli civilians had to be withdrawn, under pressure from Palestinian public opinion.
Low credibility
“Since the Hamas attack, some (in the West Bank) have criticized Mahmoud Abbas for not having reacted to the scale of what is happening in the Gaza Strip,” underlines the historian and anthropologist of politics. Stéphanie Latte Abdallah, research director at CNRS, attached to the Center for Studies in the Social Sciences of Religion (Cesor) at EHESS. The fact that he finally gave up his meeting with Joe Biden in Amman, following the explosion in the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza on October 17, was not enough to calm public opinion. The Palestinians consider that the Authority does not protect them. »
More broadly, continues the specialist, it is the lack of progress on the Palestinian question that has made Mahmoud Abbas inaudible. “Abbas has and already had very low credibility,” analyzes Stéphanie Latte Abdallah. He is criticized for not having achieved much on the political side, for having adopted methods of action which do not bear fruit, and because he continues to cooperate with the Israeli authorities without deriving political benefits from it. . »
A very young population
Despite his apparent impasse, Mahmoud Abbas, in power for eighteen years, continues to cling to a negotiated settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in accordance with the Oslo Accords, of which he was one of the great architects. . But this position distances it from its people, the majority of whom were born after their signing in 1993; 39.2% of the population in the West Bank is under 15 years old, for an average age of 20 years.
“An undeniable generational gap has widened,” explains Didier Billion. Mahmoud Abbas is 88 years old, the members of the Palestinian Authority are all over 80, and they have real difficulty understanding the dynamics and issues of society in the West Bank. »
This youth criticizes the Palestinian Authority for its impotence: expelled from the Gaza Strip by Hamas in 2007, it only partially controls the West Bank, where the number of settlers has almost tripled in thirty years.
Security cooperation
“When the Oslo Accords were signed, there were 280,000 settlers in the West Bank, compared to around 740,000 today,” continues Didier Billion. The Palestinian Authority let this happen… I’m not saying that his situation is easy, but it is, and the Palestinian population blames him for it. She is discredited in the eyes of a large part of the population, who think that she has become a sort of substitute for the Israeli army, and do not accept her. »
The security collaboration between the Israeli army and the Palestinian Authority, considered by some as one of the rare successes of the Oslo Accords, to the extent that it would have made it possible to thwart several hundred attacks, is therefore very unpopular.
“The Palestinian police tend to intervene during protests at checkpoints that are currently closing towns and villages in the West Bank, and to arrest demonstrators, without having the means to protect the Palestinian population when clashes break out with settlers . The Palestinians therefore blame him for his weakness,” underlines Stéphanie Latte Abdallah. ALSO READ Pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York: “Palestinians have the right to resist by force”
Democratic deficit
A grievance which adds to the fact that Fatah, the party of Mahmoud Abbas, has lost its popular legitimacy since the cancellation of national elections in 2021. There have been no elections in the Palestinian Territories since 2006 .
“Mahmoud Abbas is criticized for the democratic deficit in the West Bank,” points out Stéphanie Latte Abdallah. The official reason for canceling the elections was that polling stations could not be set up in Jerusalem, due to Israeli refusal, but Abbas mainly saw a victory for the opposition, not necessarily Hamas alone, two opposition lists. having also emerged within his own party, Fatah. There are also accusations of corruption. »
So, if Abbas remains of jure the president of the Palestinian Authority, and therefore a central actor, he seems “weightless”, explains Didier Billion. “He no longer has any control over his society… We may regret it, but that’s how it is. The question of his succession is both very clear and very complicated, because those who could be worthy interlocutors, who also have the trust of a large part of Palestinians, are all in prison. »
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