On Wednesday and Thursday, the Palestinian Central Council holds its 32nd session, at the Palestinian presidency in Ramallah in the West Bank, and its agenda has issues related to Palestinian affairs and another related to the political pyramid.
The Central Council is an intermediate body between the Palestinian National Council, which is like the Parliament of the Palestine Liberation Organization, emanating from it and responsible before it, and the Executive Committee of the PLO (the organization of the organization) and consists of the Executive Committee and the Chairman of the National Council and other representatives of the factions, popular federations and Palestinian competencies.
The Council – which provides for its internal regulations to be held every 3 months – has not been held despite the past and a half years after the extermination war in the Gaza Strip, which has been going on since October 7, 2023, and its 31st Derota in February 2022.
At the time, he decided to suspend recognition of Israel, end the obligations of the authority with all agreements with it, and stop all security coordination, until it recognizes a Palestinian state and stopped settlement, which was not implemented according to analysts.
What on the agenda?
According to the invitation addressed by the President of the National Council, Ruhouh Fattouh for the members of the Central Council, the next session will be held under the title “No to displacement or for annexation – steadfastness in the homeland – to save our people in Gaza and stop the war – protecting Jerusalem and the West Bank – yes to the university national unity.”
As for the agenda of the meeting, it included in its first version distributed to the members a clause amending the PLO charter, allowing the creation of the position of Vice -Chairman of the Executive Committee, but he dropped from a second copy, according to sources of Al -Jazeera Net.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced, March 5 For the first time, the decision to create a position and appoint a vice president of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the State of Palestine, and take legal measures for this.
In an interview with Palestine Government TV a few days ago, a member of the Central Committee of the Fatah movement, Mohamed Ashtia, explained that various topics on the agenda of the Central Council meeting, including amending the internal system, allowing the creation of the position of Vice -Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
According to Ashtia, the creation of the position requires amending the internal regulations of the PLO, specifically Article 13, and this is the jurisdiction of the Central Council, which plays the role of the National Council.
Article 13 of the organization’s charter states that all members of the Executive Committee are elected by the National Council, and that the Chairman of the Executive Committee will be elected by the Executive Committee, which is elected from within the council.
The amendment of the basic system of the organization, or its change or addition to it requires the approval of the National Council of the organization by a majority of its members, but in 2022 the National Council decided to delegate the Central Council with its tasks.
Required amendment
On the nature of the amendment, Ashtia says that there are consultations between the factions and within the Fatah movement, pointing to the proposed texts, including that the Executive Committee – which elects the president – elects the vice president with clear and specific powers, or the President selects his deputy with clear and specific powers.
According to Ashtia, “the concerns and issues of the Palestinian people are greater and more important than the position of vice president, and the meeting is required of national political reviews on all joints,” noting that “a great question for the Central Council answers: Where do we go?”
The Palestinian political system is formed from 3 components of its president, while the legislative council elected in 2006 – in which Hamas won the majority – is absent after the decision of the Constitutional Court to dissolve in 2018, namely:
The State of Palestine: On November 23, 2008, the Palestinian Central Council, Abbas, was elected head of the State of Palestine, to occupy a position that remained vacant since the death of the late President Yasser Arafat on November 11, 2004, which was elected by the same council after the announcement of the Independence Document in 1989.
Liberation Organization: On November 11, 2004, the Executive Committee of the PLO was elected as its president on the same day when Arafat died.
Palestinian Authority: In January 2025, Mahmoud Abbas was elected head of the Palestinian Authority in general elections that took place in the occupied territories.
Ten problems among the Palestinian people with the leadership of “Palestinian legitimacy”
In this tweet, we refer to the first and second problems:
1- The problem of identification between leadership and the organization:
This is an artificial identification, deliberately confused between the PLO, its political and moral position, its roles, tasks and institutions, and its leadership …– Mohsen M Saleh Mohsen Muhammad Saleh (@Mohsensaleh1) April 18, 2025
External pressure
According to the member of the Palestinian Center, the Palestinian Center, and the former vice -president of the Legislative Council, Hassan Khreisheh, the president’s position is one of the most prominent issues raised at the next meeting, and it comes as a result of external, Arab and western pressure.
In his speech – to Al -Jazeera Net – he added that the issue of creating the position of vice president reminiscent of the American pressure on the former Palestinian president in his late life to appoint his deputy with clear powers, which was understood at the time as withdrawing the rug from under the feet of the late president and stripping him of his powers.
Other than the issue of creating the position of Vice President, Khreisha explains that the council has taken many decisions previously without being implemented, and the fate of any new decisions will not be different.
He continued, “If the destruction, ruin, blood and war on Gaza for 18 months did not unite the political elites, and did not summon the Central Council meeting, then we cannot wait new at this week’s meeting.”
A leadership source in the PLO of “Quds Network” reveals the scenes of the way to pave the way to be Hussein Al -Sheikh, vice president of the PLO:
– The source explains that the dispute hovering within the Fatah movement over the voting mechanism and who will be their candidate, because passing the name of Hussein Al -Sheikh seems easier within the executive committee in the absence of an actual exhibition stream within it, …
Quds News Network (@qudsn) April 20, 2025
Renewal of legitimacy
As for political analyst Youssef Al -Sharqawi, he believes that the expected meeting of the Central Council refers to the reality, “there is an attempt to cleanse the basic law of the PLO with the aim of assuming the Secretary of the current Executive Committee, Hussein Al -Sheikh, the position of Vice President.”
He added that what is happening is “illegal, and the main point in the meeting is the position of vice president, with the addition of a usual preamble such as talking about meetings in a precise and critical moment and confronting settlement and others.”
He saw in his speech – to Al -Jazeera Net – that the meeting of the Central Council – which was not held over 18 months of massacres – and contrary to the slogan “independent national decision” comes “in response to Arab, international and international pressure.”
He believes that the participation of the PLO factions in amending the statute of the organization in it “prepares for its constitution” and that the selection of the vice president must take place through the polling fund.
He stressed that what is happening is “illegal” and that what is required “renew the legitimacy all (the presidency, the National Council, the Legislative Council) to graduate from the idle ballot fund,” warning that the amendment of the basic law of the organization will be led until the next deputy is the future president away from the polling fund.
A statement issued by the Palestinian National Congress
Regarding the invitation to hold the Central Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization
April 20, 2025 pic.twitter.com/43HWvKhok1
– The Palestinian National Congress (@NCPALESTINE) April 21, 2025
Consultations and warning
The Fatah movement announced that its central committee will hold two meetings this week, in preparation for the Central Council session, with the aim of reaching consensus on the position of Vice -Chairman of the Executive Committee.
A committee for dialogue with the PLO factions also formed preparations for the meeting of the Central Council of the Organization, which does not include the Islamic Resistance Movements (Hamas) and Islamic Jihad.
For its part, the Palestinian National Congress said – in a statement on Monday – that the call to the meeting came “in response to external pressure, aimed at conducting an amendment to the internal system of the PLO, to create the position of vice president of the organization’s executive committee.”
He added that “the council’s call to convene under declared pressure is no longer hidden from anyone, to achieve one goal: an attempt to impose a new president on the Palestinian people, by creating a vice -president’s position.”
He warned against “making changes and additions to the membership of the Central Council, without approving the National Council” and expressed its rejection of “the Central Council session with external dictates.”
The Palestinian National Conference is an initiative launched by Palestinian figures inside and outside Palestine to demand “the reconstruction of the PLO on the foundations of a university democracy, and pressure to form a unified Palestinian leadership,” according to what is written on its website.
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