Son of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas elected to Fatah top body

The son of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has won a seat on Fatah’s top leadership body, according to initial results from the movement’s first congress in the occupied West Bank in a decade.

The three-day Eighth General Conference in Ramallah, held from Thursday to Sunday, took place as Fatah faces existential challenges following Israel’s war in Gaza.

Yasser Abbas, 64, a businessman who resides primarily in Canada, joined the central committee after being appointed his father’s “special representative” five years ago.

The congress’s outcome drew criticism as several incumbent members retained their seats.

Marwan Barghouti, a popular Palestinian leader imprisoned in Israel since 2002, kept his seat on the committee with the highest vote count, according to figures obtained by AFP.

Jibril Rajoub was reelected as secretary-general of the committee, while Palestinian Vice President Hussein Al-Sheikh retained his position.

Organizers said the congress had 2,507 voters with a turnout of 94.6 percent.

Fifty-nine candidates competed for 18 seats on the central committee, while 450 vied for 80 seats on the revolutionary council, the party’s parliament.

Vote counting for the revolutionary council continues.

Mahmoud Abbas, reelected as Fatah leader on Thursday, pledged in his opening address to reform the Palestinian Authority and hold long-delayed presidential and parliamentary elections.

Abbas and the PA face mounting international pressure to implement reforms and hold elections amid widespread accusations of corruption and political stagnation that have eroded their legitimacy among Palestinians.

U.S. President Donald Trump has demanded sweeping reforms as a condition for the PA to play a meaningful role in post-war Gaza.

Fatah was historically the dominant force within the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole representative of the Palestinian people in international forums. It includes most Palestinian factions but excludes Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

In recent decades, Fatah’s popularity and influence have declined amid internal divisions and growing public frustration over the stalled Israel-Palestinian peace process.

This decline boosted support for rival Hamas, which won the 2006 legislative elections in the occupied West Bank before expelling Fatah from Gaza almost entirely after factional fighting.

Fatah’s central committee is expected to play a decisive role in the post-Abbas era, with key figures including Rajoub and Al-Sheikh already jockeying to succeed the 90-year-old leader.

Yasser Abbas’s election to the committee alone does not put him on a clear path to the presidency, said Ali Jarbawi, a political science professor at Birzeit University.

“This may be seen as the beginning of a phase – if not of hereditary succession, then of securing a position in the future,” he said.

Jarbawi said the elder Abbas remained firmly in command, with the congress failing to clarify who would lead the movement after him.