By Daoud Kuttab

The discussions in Palestinian homes in the city of Beit Jala this week focused on the foresight of the town’s mayor, Nicola Khamis. During a very close municipal election in 2012, Khamis had accepted a rotation agreement in which he would serve as mayor in the last two years of the scheduled four-year term. The argument espoused by Khamis’ supporters was that he knew that the erratic Palestinian situation might mean that the term of an elected official might stay longer than the scheduled four-year-term — and therefore, whoever chose the last two years is likely to stay in power a lot longer than that.

The idea of a prolonged term as mayor comes from recent history. In April 1976, the first time serious municipal elections took place, a host of pro-PLO Palestinian nationalists had a decisive win, filling most mayoral and council seats. In 1986, Israel, the occupying power, ultimately deposed or deportedabout half the mayors for anti-government agitation, and Israel was unwilling to have municipal elections take place again. Government appointees routinely replaced vacancies.

In Bethlehem, the city’s longest serving mayor in recent history, the late Elias Freij, stayed in power for 25 years. The first elections organized by the Palestinian government and under the auspices of the Central Elections Commission took place in 2005. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

A senior adviser to President Mahmoud Abbas visited a local vegetable store in Ramallah on Oct. 2. The store owner and the adviser talked about Abbas’ having attended the funeral of former Israeli President Shimon Peres on Sept. 30. When the owner of the vegetable store conveyed his criticism, the adviser related to him part of the discussion that had taken place at the Muqata, the presidential headquarters in Ramallah, prior to the funeral.

In a conversation with Al-Monitor, the vegetable store owner talked about the conversation with the adviser to Abbas on condition of anonymity. He said that the adviser had told him, “We told him [Abbas], ‘How does a leader benefit if he wins over the entire world but loses the love of his people.’” But the Palestinian leader was adamant about going to attend the funeral irrespective of the advice of the adviser or his aides.

“I am 82 and I am not running for office anymore. What I am doing is in the best interest of my people,” the adviser related as to what Abbas had said to those who opposed his action, according to the vegetable store owner. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

The United States is not the only place that will be witnessing a leadership change. Elections for top institutions and the overall leadership will be taking place within the two leading Palestinian political movements.

Fateh is expected to hold its seventh congress this winter and Hamas is expected to choose its political bureau sometime before the end of this year.

Neither Mahmoud Abbas nor Khaled Mishaal are going to be running for the top leadership position.

If it is held as planned on November 29, the seventh congress will be held two years late. But this is a huge improvement over the sixth congress that took place in Bethlehem in August 2009, 20 years after the fifth.

The Fateh central committee met in September and took this decision. The actual date will be set in a meeting that is to take place late this October.

The plan is that the Palestine National Council, over which Fateh has decisive control, will meet afterwards to elect a new executive committee of the PLO and a new chairman. Continue Reading »