Abbas calling Palestinians animals is nothing new. At his May 2023 speech at the United Nations, he said openly: “Save us. Man, why don’t you save us? Even animals, we have to save them, right? If you have an animal, don’t you protect them? Shame on you that you don’t protect animals.” Perhaps it echoes Gallant’s infamous description of Gazans as “human animals” more.
Discredited from the start:
The PLO Central Council has only met twice since 2018, most recently in 2022. Both meetings were boycotted by prominent Palestinians and factions within the PLO (such as PFLP, PPP) as well as PNI and independent Hanan Ashrawi).
This year is not different: PFLP (a PLO member) and PNI (Al-Mubadara) boycotted this year’s two-day meeting before it started.
Moments ago, the DFLP (also a PLO member) announced its withdrawal from the meeting after the conclusion of the first day, in protest of “the leadership’s failure to respond to…national unity, a national strategy to confront the genocide in Gaza and annexation of the West Bank, and implementing the outcomes of the Beijing Declaration.” Notably, the DFLP did not boycott previous meeting held in 2022.
With the boycott of PFLP, PNI, and DFLP, the three most significant parties after Fatah have withdrawn, leaving Abbas essentially alone.
The meeting is expected to be the most significant in terms of changes to the PLO since its inception, coming in the wake of numerous unilateral changes by Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah to lay the groundwork for further consolidation of power, including significant internal reshuffling and reallocation. Dozens of forced resignations (firings) have been enacted across the PA, from the Prisoners Commission, to ambassadors, to the Prime Minister.
Abbas has made decrees renaming and changing position of ministries and ministers in recent weeks and days, for reasons related to financial and power allocation.
This comes after Fatah’s repeated refusal several proposals for a unity government by over a dozen factions in the last two years, as well as a massive $1.8 billion aid package from the EU to the PA that was implemented a few weeks ago. In February, the PA silently accepted a $680 million offer from the US to crack down on resistance in the West Bank, which they happily obliged.
Just a week later, Abbas cancelled stipends for families of prisoners and martyrs, an American-zionist demand that Abbas previously promised to never concede on; Abbas freed up $150 million per year for his good behavior.
The Palestinian Authority’s hands are soaked in Palestinian blood, with their US- and EU-funded bullets resulting in the martyrdom of 21 Palestinians since October 7th, 2023, while they carry out nonstop abduction campaigns and hold dozens of political prisoners.
On Sunday, 300 PA officers were ordered to Cairo for a two-month training they are forbidden to refuse. Egyptian mediators suggested that these officers are earmarked to police Gaza when conditions allow.
At the PCC, and as he laid out at the Arab Summit in February, Abbas is set to announce a Vice President of the PLO for the first time ever, without consulting with any factions within the PLO. The meeting with also see amendments to the PLO charter.
Condemnations poured in from every corner of the Palestinian political spectrum following Abbas’ tirade, from resistance factions, civil society groups, and even from within Fatah itself.
In response to Abbas, Hamas leader Bassem Naim stated: “At a meeting that has usurped the legitimacy of the Palestinian people’s leadership, Mahmoud Abbas used foul language to describe a large and genuine segment of his own people.”
PFLP leaders derided the meeting, stating that no real reform came from previous meetings. The PFLP previously set conditions for their participating in the meeting, namely reform of the PLO based on resistance and democracy, and they made their position calling for national unity clear during recent meetings with Fatah, while affirming the PLO as the “sole representative of the Palestinian people.”
The Assembly of Families of Palestinian Prisoners, as well as the Assembly of the Families of the Martyrs issued condemnations, too. “Where is the cause of tens of thousands of Palestinian prisoners in the president’s agenda?,” they asked. “Does Mr. Abbas not envy the way ‘israeli’ leaders cherish their captives and exhaust every avenue to free them?” The Families of the Martyrs said it was a stab in the back, highlights “the gulf between the Authority and the resisting Palestinian reality.” They asked “where was the Palestinian leadership during 564 days of aggression and when Gaza was besieged, starved, and annihilated?” They affirmed resistance in all forms cannot be abandoned, surrendered, or negotiated.
Hamas expressed hope that the meeting could be “a genuine opportunity to build a national unified position” against the zionist entity’s genocide—if the Council would have enacted its own previous resolutions (stopping security coordination, escalating resistance, and severing ties with the zionist entity). Hamas not formally joined the PLO, but it has expressed willingness to accept its framework if it is reformed. Since 2022, however, Fatah blocks these steps and imposes new pre-conditions at every turn; meetings in Algiers, Beijing, Moscow, and Cairo did not yield tangible changes due to Fatah’s monopoly on the use of force.
The Mujahideen Movement was direct, stating that the meeting does not constitute a real Palestinian consensus, and continues the PLO’s history of isolation and exclusion while ignoring its own decisions. They affirmed complete support for armed resistance. Likewise, the PFLP called for a completely separate meeting that includes all factions.
The Popular Resistance Committees denounced Abbas’ speech in strong terms, rebuking Abbas’ false claim that the resistance gives “pretexts to the occupation”; they noted that occupation did not need a pretext to block Abbas from visiting Damascus or banning his Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa from visiting villages in Nablus and Ramallah in the last week. They condemned Abbas’ description of Palestinians as “dead” and affirmed that resistance is guaranteed by international and divine laws, charter, and conventions.
Fatah Revolutionary Council member Fakhri Barghouti affirms that the PCC meeting does not represent the PLO or Palestinian people, but rather “a gang that hijacks Palestinian decision making.” PNI Secretary-General Mustafa Barghouti responded to Abbas: “The victim cannot be held responsible for the occupation’s crimes.”
The Ahrar Movement also condemned Abbas’ statements, stating that the meeting should have been held at the beginning of the war, not two years into genocide: “Our struggle with the zionist enemy is an existential, ideological one that admits neither surrender nor submission. If Mahmoud Abbas and his coterie live and thrive off such submission…they do not represent our proud people or its aspiration for freedom and liberation, which lies in its weapons and its resistance.”
What unites the above is a shared conviction that real legitimacy flows from resistance, not the isolated leadership of Ramallah.
Several factions called for adherence to the previous agreements of the PCC, as well as the implementation of the pan-faction Beijing Agreement of July 2024, which has not materialized, like previous meetings. Currently, closed-door Fatah-Hamas reconciliation talks are taking place, where Fatah has attempted to impose some conditions that sound like they came directly from “Tel Aviv.”
The DFLP, in its announcement of withdrawal all of its delegates from the PCC, stated that Abbas outright refused their proposals for unity and a national consensus plan at today’s meeting. They expressed surprise that the Central Council did not take up the mission of unification and shock at the absence of national dialogue. They closed by stating that the DFLP is withdrawing because “refuses to share responsibility for the results of this meeting and for any disastrous consequences for the national cause.”
Later, DFLP politburo members expressed that they strongly rejected Abbas’ remarks and the monopolization of the agenda of the meeting by Fatah. The PNC’s Vice President, DFLP politburo member Ali Faisal, was completely excluded from the preparations for the meeting.
The meeting was centered on the dictatorial creation of the Vice Presidency of the PLO, not Palestinian grievances and aspirations.
The Palestinian Resistance Forces Alliances (Damascus-based; includes Hamas, PIJ, PFLP-GC, and others) issued a statement completely rejecting Abbas’ speech today, which they considered as detached, an insult to resistance, promotes division, and sows hatred.
They affirmed that the PCC does not reflect Palestinian popular will or aspirations, and that the convention serves to entrench hereditary rule through a leadership that has lost its legitimacy. They stated that Abbas’ attack is a desperate attempt to weaken unity for the benefit of the occupation.
“We say to Mahmoud Abbas: If you truly care about the future of this people, you should end your career with an honorable national stance that restores the value of our people’s unity and its institutions…We stress that our people will remain faithful to the choice of resistance; neither words nor imposed councils can assassinate it.”
Ironically, Abbas started his speech by calling for “a unifying national foundation” and that Fatah is “continuing the struggle,” despite nearly everyone else calling out their blatant bluff, except the sycophants in the room in Ramallah who clapped for him.
All the while, Abbas’ gang refuses unity proposals, cancels elections at every chance (while blaming “israel”), and ruled by decree with support from the US and Arab regimes. As the second-oldest head of state in the world, he is still serving his term that expired over 16 years ago. 90% of Palestinians want Abbas to resign, a figure that has only risen in quarterly polling, while over 60% call for the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority (70% in Gaza).
His rant crystalizes the issues with the PLO and PA: they are not forums of national consensus, but a stage for unilateral decrees that drift further from Palestinian popular consciousness with every passing day. Gaza remains under fire, the West Bank is occupied, but the gulf between the rhetoric of Ramallah and the resistance of the righteous has never been larger.
As Naji Al-Ali drew decades ago, the PLO cuts through the fabric of Palestine.
Abbas will carry out dictatorial changes without consultation and appoint his own successor, confirming what factions have long stated: real Palestinian legitimacy is not represented in the halls of Ramallah, but by the rifles of the resistance, the blood of the martyrs, the screams of the wounded, and the groans of the prisoners.