The Research and Information Department of the Yesha Council, which represents the approximately 500,000 Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria, published a fact sheet last week stating that many of those elected to Fatah’s Central Committee and Revolutionary Council during its Eighth General Congress (May 14–16) were convicted of terrorism-related offenses in which scores of Israelis were killed.
Fatah is the dominant political party in both the PLO and the Palestinian Authority.
The 18-member Fatah Central Committee is the movement’s top executive leadership body, while the 80-member Fatah Revolutionary Council is one of the group’s main governing bodies.
Voting is carried out by conference delegates made up of senior party officials, Fatah-affiliated unions, prisoners (i.e. terrorists), etc., and not the by the general public.
The Yesha report says that ahead of the conference, Fatah announced that all released prisoners who had served more than 20 years in Israeli prisons and were freed in recent hostage deals were automatically approved as delegates to the conference.
At the same time, Yasser Abbas, the 64-year-old son of P.A. head Mahmoud Abbas, who reportedly spends most of his time in Canada, won a seat on the Central Committee.
The report says that the elder Abbas has recently been trying to bring his son into politics, a move it describes as reflecting ideological bankruptcy within the Palestinian Authority, as well as corruption and nepotism.
The following are several examples cited in the Yesha report of convicted terrorists who were elected:
Finishing first on the Central Committee list was Marwan Barghouti, a senior Fatah figure and commander of the Tanzim terrorist network, who has been imprisoned by Israel since 2002 after being convicted on five counts of murder, one count of attempted murder, and involvement in attacks during the Second Intifada. He was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences plus 40 years.
Zakaria Zubeidi, a former commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades (Fatah’s “military” wing) in Jenin during the Second Intifada, finished ninth in the voting. Zubeidi was involved in a 2002 Beit She’an attack that resulted in the deaths of six Israelis. He was released from a life sentence in February 2025 as part of a prisoner exchange deal.
Ahmad Abd al-Qader Ibrahim Aslim (al-Jakmat) was elected to Fatah’s Revolutionary Council. He was sentenced in Israel to two life sentences plus 25 years for the murder of two Israelis in a 2002 shooting near Eli, of which he served 23 years in prison. He was released in February 2025 as part of a prisoner exchange deal and subsequently deported to Cairo, where he currently resides.
‘Not a legitimate partner’
Omer Rahamim, CEO of the Yesha Council, told JNS the list of Fatah elected officials once again proves that the Palestinian Authority is not a legitimate partner for negotiations, but rather a group that encourages and promotes terrorism.
“When murderers and terrorists become leaders and political symbols, this is a clear declaration of intent to continue the struggle to destroy the State of Israel,” Rahamim said.
He added, “The world must stop ignoring the truth: Fatah and the Palestinian Authority continue to glorify terrorism and place terrorists at the heart of their leadership.”
Dr. Mordechai Kedar, senior research associate at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies and an expert on the Muslim world, told JNS that the election results clearly demonstrate that an individual’s status within the PLO is closely linked to his activities against Israel, particularly involvement in terrorism.
“The more involved he is [in terrorism], the higher his status,” he said.
Kedar pointed out that Arabs from eastern Jerusalem have low-level positions in Fatah, because they are generally not involved in terrorism.
“Fatah is a terror organization, period,” Kedar said emphatically.
Lt. Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch, director of the Initiative for Palestinian Authority Accountability and Reform at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA) and former director of the military prosecution for Judea and Samaria, told JNS that the general importance of the votes is that Fatah has clearly rededicated itself to the path of violence, terror, murder and rejection of Israel’s right to exist.
Hirsch said that Yasser Abbas’s election to a seat appears to indicate that Abbas the father is seeking to entrench his son in the leadership, further undermining what he described as the already fragile legitimacy of the PLO–P.A. and reinforcing perceptions of corruption and nepotism, akin to a system passed down from father to son like a monarchy.
In a recent JCFA paper, Hirsch argued that “the attempt to establish a new Middle Eastern royal family in which the role of Palestinian leadership is passed from father to son, should raise every red flag imaginable.”
The P.A. remains devoid of any democratic culture, he said.
“The Palestinian leaders ... have no intention whatsoever to release their stranglehold on the P.A.’s multi-billion-dollar purse strings. Each of them knows that inheriting the leadership mantle is a guarantee for them and their family members to enjoy immense riches and luxury, all at the expense of the Palestinian people,” he said.
“In that context, Abbas clearly prefers establishing the ‘House of Abbas’ over ceding power to anyone else,” Hirsch said.
