Palestinian Leader Abbas Appoints Hussein al-Sheikh as Deputy Amid Succession Fears

Palestinian leaders in the Israeli-occupied West Bank met this week for the first gathering of its kind in years. Their mission: to allow Mahmoud Abbas, the aging Palestinian Authority president, to appoint a longtime loyalist to a newly minted senior position.

On Saturday night, Mr. Abbas formally named Hussein al-Sheikh, a close confidant, as his deputy. Some analysts believed Mr. al-Sheikh’s promotion indicated that Mr. Abbas, 89, was signaling that Mr. al-Sheikh was his preferred heir, while others saw it as a cosmetic reshuffle to placate Arab officials frustrated by the Palestinian leader.

For many Palestinians, their leadership’s focus on palace politics as the war in Gaza has raged, and a sweeping Israeli military operation in the northern West Bank has displaced tens of thousands of people, has further underscored the complacency of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.

“The ship is sinking, and everyone’s fighting over who’s going to be seated at what table,” said Ghaith al-Omari, a former adviser to Mr. Abbas and a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a research group.

More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza, according to local health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. The war began with Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, which killed about 1,200 people and took roughly 250 hostage.

The war cast a spotlight on the Palestinian cause and spurred worldwide protests. But the frail and internally divided Palestinian Authority — the Palestinians’ internationally recognized representative — has struggled for relevance.

In an hourlong speech on Wednesday addressing the conference, Mr. Abbas mostly reiterated familiar talking points condemning Israel’s campaign in Gaza. He also denounced his Hamas rivals, calling them “sons of dogs” and demanding that they release the remaining hostages.

Created during Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in the 1990s, the Palestinian Authority still oversees parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Many Palestinians hoped the body would one day govern an independent state, but negotiations to that end foundered in the early 2000s in the face of rising violence.

A significant part of the governing Israeli coalition support indefinite Israeli control in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel also regularly confiscates and withholds large chunks of the Palestinian budget, financially hobbling Mr. Abbas’s government.

At home, an overwhelming majority of Palestinians want Mr. Abbas to step down, opinion polls show. Some support his Hamas rivals, arguing that the Palestinian Authority’s diplomatic approach has failed. In response, Mr. Abbas has consolidated power and cracked down on his critics.

Amid the war in Gaza, the Biden administration and its Arab allies urged Mr. Abbas to overhaul the authority. Many Western officials have viewed it as the sole feasible alternative to Hamas and have hoped that it could run the Gaza Strip after the war.

But U.S. and Arab officials have proposed that Mr. Abbas give up at least some power, which he has been loath to do. Palestinians have not had national elections since 2006, when Mr. Abbas’s Fatah faction lost to Hamas at the ballot box.

One request was for Mr. Abbas to appoint an empowered prime minister to rehabilitate the Palestinian Authority’s governance and fight corruption. Instead, he named one of his closest aides, Mohammad Mustafa, to the post, which many observers saw as more of the same.

Arab leaders also pressed Mr. Abbas to deal more seriously with the question of who might succeed him, including by appointing a deputy who would try to assure continuity in the event of his death, according to two Palestinian officials and a Western diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss such sensitive details.

During a meeting in the summer of 2024, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia pressed Mr. Abbas to appoint a vice president, the Palestinian officials said.

On Saturday night, the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee assented to Mr. Abbas’s request to give Mr. al-Sheikh the title of deputy chairman of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Mr. al-Sheikh also said on social media that he now bore the title of “vice president of the State of Palestine.”

“Abbas’s primary goal is to relieve himself of the pressure from the Arabs,” said Jehad Harb, a Ramallah-based political analyst. “But it’s still unclear whether he’s actually giving up power.”

Saudi Arabia welcomed Mr. al-Sheikh’s appointment on Saturday, saying it was poised to “strengthen the Palestinian political system.”

Mr. al-Sheikh has long worked closely with his Israeli and American counterparts, who often describe him as a pragmatic moderate. Many Palestinians see him as emblematic of the failures of the Palestinian Authority and a symbol of the deadlocked status quo.

But what might happen should Mr. Abbas die in office remains nebulous, as he has declined to appoint a clear heir, step down or allow for democratic elections. The result has been a power struggle among senior Palestinian officials jockeying for position before his death.