Biography
Rawhi Fattouh was elected in 1996 as a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council of the town of Rafah (in the southern Gaza Strip) for Fatah,where he was born and has lived for most of his life. He served as Secretary to the PLC until October 2003,when he became the Minister of Agriculture during the first year of the Second Qurei Government from 2003 until 2004.
In July 2004,Fattah’s parliamentary bloc nominated Fattouh as its candidate for Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council. He was elected to the position with the support of 34 Fatah delegates,while 10 voted against his nomination. [6] In November of the same year,Fattuh supported Ahmed Qurei,his predecessor as speaker and former prime minister,to succeed Arafat as president.
Fattouh was sworn in as interim President of the Palestinian National Authority before the Palestinian Legislative Council in Ramallah on 11 November 2004,following the death of Yasser Arafat. In his inaugural address,he praised Arafat as a martyr of the Palestinian people and pledged to faithfully follow Arafat's policies. [7] Fattouh did not seek re-election in the 2006 legislative election and subsequently ceased to be a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. [2]
In 2022,he chaired the 18-member Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization,which was dominated by members of Fatah. A member of the Palestinian National Council since 1983,Fattouh was regarded by some analysts as lacking significant political influence or charisma,limiting his ability to wield real power despite his senior positions. [8]
In January 2023,Israel revoked Fattouh’s entry permit—along with those of two other senior Palestinian officials—after they visited Karim Younis,a prisoner recently released after serving a sentence for the 1980 murder of an Israeli soldier. [9]
On 30 November 2024,President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree nominating Fattouh to assume the presidency of the Palestinian Authority in the event of his death or incapacity. [10] However,according to article 37 of the Palestinian Basic Law,if the office of the President becomes vacant,the Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council is constitutionally mandated to serve as interim President for a period not exceeding sixty days,during which presidential elections must be held,procedure which was itself applied with Fattouh in 2006. Since the PLC was officially dissolved by Abbas in 2018 and had not convened in full since June 2007 due to political divisions,the nomination of Fattouh was justified by the absence of an active legislative body capable of fulfilling the constitutional role.
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At an event in Algeria in 2023,Fattuh claimed that Arabs had inhabited Jerusalem for over 1.5 million years. He also claimed that the first human civilizations appeared in Mount Carmel,furthermore that the Kebaran "engineering civilization" appeared in the Kebara Cave,60,000 years ago.[10]
Both of those claims contradict current scientific understanding. The oldest known humans came much later;the Kebaran culture was a hunter gatherer culture from about 30,000 years later.
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