The path to Palestinian liberation from occupation begins with Mahmoud Abbas’ ouster
By Hamid Javadi
Mahmoud Abbas, the incumbent president of the Palestinian Authority (PA), has long been a controversial and unpopular figure among Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
This week, he sank to a new low by launching a scathing tirade against the Gaza-based resistance movement Hamas, which has been at the frontline of resistance against Israeli occupation, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.
In a fiery speech delivered from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, Abbas referred to Hamas members as “sons of dogs,” as he called on them to surrender their arms, release Israeli captives, and hand over control of Gaza – echoing the demands of Israeli leaders.
His remarks came during the opening of the 32nd session of the Palestinian Central Council (PCC), an ineffectual decision-making body that has only convened twice since 2018.
Instead of directing his anger at the Israeli occupation regime, which has killed over 52,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2013, Abbas took aim at the very resistance group that has been defending the territory against the genocidal regime for more than 18 months.
Abbas’s insult was not a Freudian slip or an off-the-cuff remark, but a calculated moral misstep by the octogenarian leader, who has a long history of showing disdain for a large segment of the Palestinian population.
It was not the first time Abbas used such demeaning language to address fellow Palestinians. In his speech before the United Nations in May 2023, he openly called them “animals.”
“Save us. Man, why don’t you save us? Even animals, we have to save them, right? If you have an animal, don’t you protect them? Shame on you that you don’t protect animals,” he said back then.
His insulting comments at the PCC conference sparked widespread condemnation and exposed his growing disconnect from the people he is supposed to represent. Hamas officials slammed Abbas for deflecting responsibility for ongoing Israeli aggression against Palestinians.
Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas leader, suggested that Abbas’s comments were a deliberate attempt to obscure the PA’s collaboration with Israel. The Palestinian Mujahideen Movement, which split from Abbas’s Fatah faction in the 2000s, also condemned Abbas, highlighting his failure to unite Palestinian factions against Israeli threats.
Palestinians increasingly see Abbas as a liability for their cause. Critics accuse him of collaborating with Israeli occupation forces and adopting an authoritarian leadership style that undermines Palestinian unity and resistance at a time when they are most needed.
How did Mahmoud Abbas come to power?
Abbas’s rise to power is deeply intertwined with the tumultuous history of the Palestinian Authority and is relevant to where the struggle for liberation stands two decades later.
The Palestinian Authority was established in 1994 following the Oslo Accords as a temporary governing body for Palestinians in the West Bank, al-Quds, and Gaza. Its creation was supposed to pave the way to an independent Palestinian state.
However, the failure of final-status negotiations in 2000 transformed the PA into a permanent institution with its own security apparatus.
The collapse of the Camp David talks in July 2000, coupled with then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s controversial visit to al-Aqsa, ignited the Second Intifada. This uprising, which lasted until 2005, resulted in over 3,000 Palestinian deaths and marked a turning point for the PA.
Amid the unrest, Abbas emerged as a key figure. In 2003, under pressure from Washington, then-PA leader Yasser Arafat appointed him as prime minister. Abbas, critical of the Second Intifada, sought to negotiate with Israel but faced backlash among Palestinians for his concessions on issues like Palestinian prisoners and his calls for disarming resistance groups.
Abbas’s tenure as prime minister was short-lived; he resigned in September 2003 amid escalating tensions with Arafat. Following Arafat’s death in 2004, Abbas was elected president of the Palestinian Authority in 2005.
Unlike his predecessor, Abbas opposed armed resistance – widely seen by most Palestinians as the only legitimate way to counter Israeli occupation and aggression – a stance that has shaped his leadership to this day.
Over the years, the PA’s authority has diminished, controlling only parts of the occupied West Bank and facing widespread criticism for suppressing Palestinians and cooperating with Israeli forces.
That collaboration has only intensified since Israel launched the genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023.
In December 2024, Abbas-led PA launched a large-scale crackdown on the flashpoint city of Jenin and its refugee camp. The main objective was to dismantle the Jenin Battalion, an armed resistance group fighting against the Israeli occupation in the occupied West Bank.
PA security forces clashed with resistance fighters in the city, raided hospitals, and shot at civilians. The operation was a prelude to Israel’s largest assault on the occupied West Bank since the Second Intifada.
In January, Israeli occupation forces launched what they called Operation Iron Wall, deploying tanks to occupied West Bank towns and cities for the first time to destroy the camps.
The United Nations reported that more than 40,000 Palestinian refugees were displaced from their camps. PA forces continued to assist Israeli regime forces in raiding Jenin and other occupied West Bank cities.
Over the years, Abbas has proven to be an enabler of Israeli occupation rather than a leader advocating for Palestinian rights and liberation from occupation.
Since the Israeli invasion of Gaza, he has amplified Israeli demands for resistance groups to disarm, becoming an executive arm of the Israeli regime in confronting resistance.
Undermining Hamas from the beginning
When Hamas won the 2006 parliamentary elections, Abbas aligned with the Americans and Israelis to prevent the Hamas-led government from functioning as a democratically elected party.
In 2007, Abbas’s security forces, in coordination with the Americans, attempted to overthrow the Hamas government in Gaza but were completely outmaneuvered.
David Wurmser, a former US official, admitted back then that the administration of former President George W. Bush was involved in “a dirty war in order to provide a corrupt dictatorship [led by Abbas] with victory.”
Since then, Gaza has endured a suffocating Israeli blockade, with Abbas turning a blind eye to the suffering of the Palestinian people in the besieged territory.
Abbas has undermined the Palestinian cause in more than one way. Often criticized by Palestinians as a puppet supported by Americans, Israelis, and regional actors, Abbas has maintained tight control over Palestinian political life for two decades.
He has dismissed governments, appointed prime ministers, canceled elections, spent billions of dollars, shielded corruption among his close associates, and established a constitutional court to dissolve the Hamas-led Legislative Council.
Under Abbas’s leadership, the Palestinian dream of establishing an independent state with al-Quds as its capital has drifted further from reality.
While Abbas frequently pays lip service to Palestinian statehood in international forums, his actions suggest a stark departure from this vision. Influenced by Israeli and American officials, Abbas has come to believe that the creation of a Palestinian state is unattainable.
Rather than confronting Israel, Abbas has prioritized his own political survival and taken steps that have deepened the Palestinian Authority’s dependency on and coordination with Israel.
Palestinians truly see this as a betrayal of their aspirations for freedom and sovereignty.
The time has come for Palestinians to reclaim their agency and chart a new course for their future. Removing Abbas from power is not just a political necessity—it is a step toward restoring hope and realizing the Palestinians’ vision of freedom and self-determination.
Hamid Javadi is a senior Iranian journalist and commentator based in Tehran.
(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV)
