Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has stripped five lawmakers of their parliamentary immunity, a move likely to consolidate his rule following his unanimous reelection as the head of the Fatah Party, Reuters reported Monday. Three of the parliamentarians sought sanctuary in the Ramallah offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross before being escorted out of the building by police officers.
Abbas’ chief political rival, Mohammed Dahlan, was sentenced in absentia to three years in prison for graft last Wednesday, a decision that the exiled Dahlan said was political and “ordered by Abbas.” According to Reuters, “All five of those who had their immunity from prosecution revoked are regarded as allies or associates of Dahlan.” Many of Dahlan’s supporters have been purged from Fatah or arrested and were excluded from the recent Fatah Congress that re-elected Abbas as party chief.
“This was an absolute violation of Palestinian law and the constitution,” Shami al-Shami, one of the parliamentarians whose immunity was revoked, told Reuters. A group of Fatah parliamentarians issued a joint statement calling for the decision to be reversed and said that Abbas did not have the right to make the move.
In a similar incident this past March, Najat Abu Bakr, a Fatah lawmaker, sought sanctuary in the Palestinian parliament building; a warrant had been issued for her arrest by the Palestinian Authority after she accused a close Abbas associate of corruption.
The Fatah conference, which was held last month for the first time in seven years, demonstrated Abbas’ continued grip on Fatah and the PA. But it did not lay out a succession plan for Abbas, who is 81 years old and was recently hospitalized with heart problems. If Abbas is incapacitated or leaves power, leadership of the PA would temporarily fall to Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council Aziz Dweik, a member of the terrorist group Hamas.
Polls show that many Palestinians want Abbas to resign. He was elected in 2005 to a four-year term and has ruled by decree since 2009. Abbas established a new court in April to further consolidate his power.
Grant Rumley, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, warned in May that the West’s refusal to challenge the growing corruption and autocratic rule under Abbas “could have a devastating effect on the long- prospects for a viable Palestinian state.”
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