ABBAS, MAHMOUD

Abbas, Mahmoud: translation

(Abu Mazen)

(1935- )

Born inSafed, Palestine. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, he and his family moved to Syria, where he graduated with a law degree from the University of Damascus. In 1982, he defended his doctoral dissertation at Moscow University on the "secret ties between Nazis and theZionistMovement leadership." Two years later, he published a book in Jordan based on these findings entitledThe Other Side:The Secret Relationship between Nazism and Zionism. In 1957, Abbas was one of the founding members ofFatahand remained a close confidant ofYasser Arafat. He became a member of the Fatah central committee and was elected to thePalestine Liberation Organization(PLO) executive committee in 1980. Elected to the firstPalestinian Legislative Councilin 1996, he was a principal negotiator of the 1993Oslo Accordswith Israel and signed the Israel-Palestine Liberation Organization Declaration of Principles on 13 September 1993 on behalf of the Palestinians. In 1995, he conducted a series of secret talks with Labor members of theKnessetand deputy foreign ministerJoseph(Yossi)Beilinon the framework for a permanent Israeli-Palestiniansettlement. In 1997, he was named by Arafat as his designated successor.He wrote a book published in Arabic under the titleThe Path to Peace(Through Secret Channels, in English).

Beginning in the fall of 2000, Abbas publicly criticized the militarization of theAl-Aksa intifada; though he supported the continuation of the Palestinian struggle against Israel, he claimed the use of armed violence and terror against Israelis, especially against civilians inside the Green Line, was only provoking greater and greater retaliation by Israel that was resulting in more Palestinian casualties and the destruction of the Palestinian social and economic infrastructure. In March 2003, Abbas was appointed to the newly formed position of prime minister of thePalestinian Authority(PA) by Arafat. However, frustrated by his inability to wrest real authority over Palestinian affairs away from Arafat, Abbas resigned on 6 September 2003. Abbas essentially disappeared from Palestinian political life until the fall of 2004, when he andAhmed Queria(Abu Alla) took over the daily operation of both the PA and the PLO from the ailing Arafat. After Arafat's death in November Abbas became acting chairman of the PLO; on 9 January he was elected chairman of the PA, taking 62 percent of the popular vote. In the subsequent period, he contended withIsmail HaniyaofHamas, who was chosen as prime minister in the elections of 2006. The Palestinian internecine conflict led to the separation of theWest Bankand theGaza Stripinto two contending Palestinian areas. While Haniya and Hamas continued violent action against Israel and Fatah, Abbas pursued a dialogue with Israel, seeking to move in the direction of resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. At theAnnapolis Conferencein November 2007, Abbas agreed with Israeli Prime MinisterEhud Olmertto undertake intense direct bilateral negotiations toward the goal of achieving by the end of 2008 an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty based on the two-state model envisioned by PresidentGeorge W.Bushof theUnited Statesand in theQuartet Roadmap.

See alsoArab-Israeli Conflict.