Hamas and other Palestinian terror factions have refused to acknowledge a series of recent appointments made by Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, according to a report by The Jerusalem Post.
“[There is] no recognition of, and no legitimacy to, the appointments announced by the Palestinian Central Council (PCC) during its illegitimate meeting on Sunday and Monday,” said Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in a rare joint statement.
These choices “do not represent our people, and constitute a breach of the national consensus and a suppression of the will of the Palestinian people,” they added.
According to a report by World Israel News, the statement “illustrates escalating tensions and an increasingly public power struggle between the terror groups, whose influence over Jerusalem and P.A.-controlled areas in Judea and Samaria is steadily growing, and octogenarian Abbas, who is wildly unpopular and faces widespread calls to resign.”
In a meeting held last week in Ramallah, the headquarters of the P.A., senior P.A. officials Hussein al-Sheikh, Rouhi Fattouh, Mohammed Mustafa and Ramzi Khoury were selected for key positions in the PLO Executive Committee and the Palestinian National Council (PNC), said the report.
“Abbas’s critics said the decisions were a strategic move meant to solidify his position in the P.A., as he can be protected by his loyalists from a potential ouster,” it added.
Hamas, PIJ and the PFLP have demanded that national elections be held, after Abbas canceled a vote scheduled for May last year, blaming Israel’s refusal to allow the elections to take place in east Jerusalem.
