Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas claimed on Saturday that elections for the Palestinian National Council, an internal body of his Palestine Liberation Organization, will be held by the end of the year.
Since Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are not members of the PLO, they are not represented in the PNC.
Abbas’s decree, which he issued after the Palestinian body met in the Samaria city of Ramallah on Thursday, states that the date of the future election is set to be determined by the chairman of the PLO Executive Committee, a position held by Abbas since October 2004.
The Palestinian National Council sets the PLO’s policies and elects members of the organization’s Abbas-led executive committee.
The Palestinian National Council is a separate body from the Palestinian Legislative Council, which is the parliament of the Palestinian Authority. Until Thursday, the PNC had met only once since being elected in 2006. The body met only twice since 1991, in 1996 and 2018.
According to Abbas’s declaration, which was publicized by Ramallah’s official Wafa news agency, the new council will be composed of 350 members. Two-thirds of them will be from Judea, Samaria and Gaza, while the other third will be from the Palestinian diaspora, it stated.
To be a member of the PNC, the would-be members would have to commit themselves to the PLO’s program, as well as its “international obligations and international legitimacy resolutions,” the order read.
Abbas, who has led the PLO-controlled Palestinian Authority since being elected for a four-year term 21 years ago, has often promised elections amid pressure by the U.S. and E.U. for the P.A. to reform.
Most recently, Abbas indefinitely postponed 2021 elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council and the P.A. presidency, claiming the cancellation came due to Israel’s refusal to allow voting in Jerusalem.
The P.A., which is deeply unpopular among the Palestinian public, has sought to take control of the Gaza Strip after the Israel Defense Forces operation against the Iranian-backed Hamas terrorist group there ends.
Jerusalem is seeking the destruction of Hamas’s governing capabilities but has also rejected P.A. involvement due to its support for terrorism.
“Just as I have committed to, on the day after the war in Gaza, there will be neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority. I am committed to U.S. President Trump’s plan for the creation of a different Gaza,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated in a Feb. 17 statement.
Trump’s plan for Gaza envisions relocating its two million residents and undertaking a clearing and reconstruction process under U.S. oversight.
