Abbas reelected

Ramallah : President Mahmud Abbas was reelected head of the Palestine Liberation Organization yesterday, as the veteran leader seeks to strengthen his control over politics in the occupied West Bank.

A four-day meeting of the PLO’s parliament, the Palestinian National Council (PNC), which was not attended by Abbas’s Islamist rivals Hamas, backed Abbas and selected a new leadership of the PLO’s executive committee.

“President Abu Mazen (Abbas) was nominated and unanimously approved as the president of the State of Palestine,” senior Palestinian official Nabil Shaath told AFP.

“An executive committee was chosen and an executive council was chosen.” But the event was overshadowed by comments made by Abbas during his opening speech in which he appeared to blame Jewish behaviour for their persecution in Europe.

Israel, the European Union, United States and others lined up to criticise his words, which were labelled anti-Semitic.

In closing remarks early Friday, Abbas did not respond to the criticism. The new executive committee, the most senior body of the PLO and effectively Abbas’s cabinet, included nine new names out of 15. A number of potential rivals, including Yasser Abed Rabbo, were removed.

The previously 18-member committee was kept to just 15 representatives to leave space for Hamas and two smaller parties that boycotted the event.

Some opposed the event being held in the West Bank, where Israel controls movement, and others wanted the meeting to be postponed until a later date.

Hamas, which controls Gaza, has dismissed the PNC meeting.

A reconciliation deal signed by Hamas and Abbas’s Fatah party in October has collapsed.