Mohammad Ayesh
Middle East Eye / June 13, 2023
Mahmoud Abbas’ poor health raises concern.
Doctors flocked to the residence of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah last week as he underwent extensive medical examinations, according to the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar.
Sources told the daily that “doctors were summoned several times to conduct tests for President Abbas, and in addition, [doctors] carried out urgent examinations in Jordan in secret, before he went to the United Nations”.
The 87-year-old’s poor health has again raised questions within the Fatah movement about who will succeed him.
Sources in Fatah said many in the leadership of the second generation and the popular base of the movement in the West Bank view Marwan Barghouti – currently jailed in an Israeli prison – as Abbas’s successor, but the leadership rejects this.
The sources added that Fatah leaders had recently been investigating medical reports about Abbas’s health status, and have started preparing for the post-Abbas era.
“Israel wants Fatah leader Hussein al-Sheikh or intelligence chief Majid Faraj to assume the position of president after Abbas’s death, because they categorically reject armed resistance,” according to Al-Akhbar newspaper.
Mohammad Ayesh is an Arab journalist currently based in London
