A Possible Successor? Mahmoud Abbas’s Son Joins Fatah’s Top Leadership

The conference of the Palestinian Fatah movement convened in Ramallah and chose new additions to the body that runs the movement. According to a report today (Sunday) by Reuters, millionaire businessman Yasser Abbas, 64, the son of Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas, won a leadership role in the movement.

Abu Mazen’s son will serve as a member of Fatah’s Central Committee, the party’s highest decision-making body. According to the report, it is possible that his father, 90, is preparing a senior role for him, and may even have marked him as his successor. The conference elected Abu Mazen to another term as chairman.

Yasser Abbas, who has never held a position in the Palestinian Authority, runs tobacco and contracting companies in parts of Judea and Samaria where the Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule.

Alongside him, those elected to serve as members of the governing committee included Majed Faraj, head of the intelligence agency, and former Jenin leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, terrorist Zakaria Zubeidi. He was released about a year ago from Israeli prison in the hostage deal between Hamas and Israel.