Mahmoud Abbas

Mahmoud Abbas is married to Amina Abbas; the couple has three children named Mazen Abbas, Yasser Abbas and Tareq. Among them Mazen Abbas has passed away at the age of 42 while Yasser Abbas is a Canadian businessman and Tareq works as a business executive,

Abbas has so far penned down two books. His first book, ‘The Other Side: the Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism’, written in Arabic, is based on his doctoral thesis ‘The Connection between the Nazis and the Leaders of the Zionist Movement’. His second book, ‘Through Secret Channels: The Road to Oslo’, is a memoirs of the Oslo agreement.

Mahmoud Abbas was born on March 26, 1935 in Safed, also known as Zefad. The town is located in the Galilee region of Northern Israel, but earlier fell under the Mandatory Palestine.

When the Palestine War broke out in 1948, he, along with his family, fled to Syria. Mahmoud did his schooling there. Later he studied law at University of Damascus and after graduation, moved to Egypt. For some time, he worked as an elementary teacher.

Later in late 50s, he went to Qatar and took up services under the Emirate’s civil service as Director of Personnel. Here he came in contact with exiled Palestinian leaders and was initiated into politics.

Much later, he went to Moscow and enrolled at Patrice Lumumba University to do his doctorate. The theme was ‘The Connection between the Nazis and the Leaders of the Zionist Movement’. He received his Candidate of Science Degree (Russian equivalent to PHD) in 1982.

Later in 1984, he published this work as a book titled ‘The Other Side: the Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism’. It was written in Arabic. In it he tried to establish that the number of deaths in the Holocaust was actually a lie and the Jews, who died at the concentration camp was in reality victims of Nazi-Zionist conspiracy.

Mahmoud Abbas was initiated into politics while living in Qatar sometime in late 50s. In 1961, he was recruited by Yasser Arafat and absorbed in Ḥarakat al-Taḥrīr al-Waṭanī al-Filasṭīnī (Palestine National Liberation Movement), popularly known as Fatah or Fath.

It was an underground political organization, co-founded by Yasser Arafat, with the aim of wrestling Palestine from Israeli control by armed struggle. Fatah later came to dominate Palestine Liberation Organization. In 1968, Abbas joined the Palestine National Council and also became a member of the Executive Committee of Palestine Liberation Organization.

Abbas also donated considerably towards the cause of the organization. According to Abu Daoud, who masterminded 1972 Munich Massacre, Abbas provided the fund; albeit without knowing how the money was going to be used.

In late 1970s Abbas began to head the International Department of PLO. In this capacity, he was entrusted with the task of presenting PLO policies in a more moderate light. Very soon, he started advocating talks with Israel. In 1977, he made the first contract with peace groups in Israel.

In 1990s, Abbas was entrusted with the task of shaping Palestinian negotiating strategy for the peace conference to be held in 1991 in Madrid. Later he also prepared the peace strategy for the secret meetings to be held with the Israelis in Oslo.

By 2003, Abbas began to emerge as more visible face of Palestinian leadership. By then, both Unites States and Israel had refused to deal with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat. Abbas, being one of earliest members of Fatah, was naturally chosen to replace him. Besides, he was equally acceptable to the West.

On March 19, 2003 Abbas was appointed by Arafat as the Prime Minister of Palestinian National Authority. On coming to power he immediately renounced terrorism and promised to end uprising against Israel and create a single Palestinian armed force.

However, Arafat kept on interfering in every matter and the tussle of power between the two leaders continued. Finally, Abbas resigned from office on September 6, 2003. During this short stint he also had to deal with Palestinian militant groups that preferred a more hard-line approach.

Although he stepped down from the office, there was no challenge to his leadership. When Arafat died in November 2004, Abbas became the majority choice. He became the Chairman of PLO and also won the Presidential election, held in January 9, 2005, by garnering 60% of votes.

As President of Palestine National Authority, he gave a call for end of violence and prescribed peaceful resistance. However, he could not disarm the militant groups and in direct challenge to his authority they launched attacks on January 12 and 13 killing many Israeli.