The haunting spectre of Dahlan


November 11, 2016
Sarah Benton

This posting has these items:
1) CounterPunch: The Infamy of the Palestinian Elites: An Imminent Split within Fatah?, a polemic from Ramzy Baroud;
2) Reuters: Palestinian president can revoke parliamentary immunity of opponents, this is thought to be Abbas’ move against Dahlan;
3) NY Times: In Muhammad Dahlan’s Ascent, a Proxy Battle for Legitimacy;
4) Haaretz: As Abbas’ Isolation Increases, Israeli Military Team Prepares for His Rule’s Collapse;
5) Ma’an: Supporters of dismissed Fatah leader Muhammad Dahlan burn pictures of Abbas in Gaza;


Rich, secretive and autocratic rivals Mahmoud Abbas and Mohammed Dahlan. Photo by AP

The Infamy of the Palestinian Elites: An Imminent Split within Fatah?

By Ramzy Baroud, Counterpunch
November 10, 2016

The Fatah movement is involved in a massive tug-of-war that will ultimately define its future. Though the conflict is between current Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, and once Gaza strongman, Mohammed Dahlan, is in no way motivated by ending the Israeli Occupation, their war will likely determine the future political landscape of Palestine.

The issue cannot be taken lightly, nor can it be dismissed as an internal Fatah conflict. The latter is one of the two largest Palestinian factions, the largest within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and has single-handedly pushed Palestinians into the abyss of the ‘peace process’ and the great Oslo Accords gamble, which has come at great cost and no benefits.

Moreover, Fatah embodies Palestine’s ruling elites. True, Abbas’ mandate expired in 2009 and Dahlan has been accumulating massive wealth since he fled the West Bank in 2011 (following his public feud with Abbas) but, sadly, both men wield substantial authority and influence. Abbas runs the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah with an iron fist and with the full consent and support of Israel and the United States, while Dahlan is being actively groomed by various Middle Eastern governments, and possibly Israeli and US powers, as the likely successor of the aging Ramallah leader.

They are both indifferent to the harsh reality experienced by their people on the ground.

A limited uprising, known by some as the ‘Knife Intifada’ and others as ‘al-Quds Intifada’, is teetering on the brink, with no serious efforts by the Palestinian leadership to, at least, try to harness Palestinian energies towards a sustainable, long-term popular uprising. On the contrary, Abbas has done his utmost to ignore the Palestinian people’s cry for help and for an astute, courageous leadership.

Instead, Abbas continues to perceive his ‘security coordination’ with Israel as ‘holy’, while continuing to crackdown on Palestinian resistance and on his own Fatah opponents and their supporters.

He is yet to designate a successor, despite the fact that he is 81-years-old and suffers from heart ailments.

This has signaled an opportunity to Dahlan, who has been accused of involvement in various shady Arab affairs. Dahlan has been aching for a comeback from his villa in Abu Dhabi. In a recent New York Times article, Peter Baker, who interviewed Dahlan, described part of his wealth:

His spacious home here in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, features plush sofas, vaulted ceilings and chandeliers. The infinity pool in the back seems to spill into the glistening waterway beyond.

Dahlan’s amassing of wealth goes back to his years in Gaza, when he was the head of the notorious Preventive Security Service, itself formed and trained with the help of the US, the CIA in particular, according to various media reports. Its torture techniques were criticized repeatedly by international human rights groups.


Dahlan surrounded by armed Fatah supporters in Gaza, 2007. The Al Araby headline for an article speculating on Dahlan’s moves was, 2015, ‘Mohammed Dahlan: The return of Gaza’s gangster politico‘ Photo by AFP

Dahlan remains unrepentant: neither apologetic about his unexplained wealth, nor for the Gaza crackdowns which ended when Hamas deposed him and his movement in 2007, resulting in a short-lived civil war.

‘Two things that I am not denying,” he told the NYT. “That I’m rich. I will not deny it. Ever. And that I am strong, I will not deny it. But I work hard to increase my level of life.”

Explaining what many perceive as a brutal reign in Gaza, he dismissed it, saying that he “wasn’t head of the Red Cross,” at the time.

A Human Rights Watch report expounded on the extent of the crackdown that commenced soon after the PA took charge of the Occupied Territories in 1994. For example, “during the first eight months of 1996, at least 2,000 Palestinians were arrested” by the PA police. The rate is almost as high as arrests carried out by the Israeli army. “The arrests were arbitrary,” according to HRW and no courts or due process was ever part of the procedure, which, almost always, involved torture.

Sadly, the legacies of Abbas and Dahlan are largely predicated on such behaviour, and their current conflict is mostly concerned with personal power struggles that involve just them and their followers.

Abbas, who is slowly losing the traditional Arab allies who once supported him against Hamas, and is relegated by Israel – which is trying to arrange the post-Abbas Palestinian leadership – is trying to explore new alliances. He has recently visited Turkey and Qatar. In Qatar, he met with top Hamas leaders, Khaled Meshaal and Ismael Haniyeh.

Hamas is not being courted by Abbas to end the protracted and disconcerting Palestinian feud for many years, but rather to counterbalance earlier moves by Dahlan to pander to Hamas.

Dahlan is involved in various ‘charity projects’ including financing mass weddings in impoverished Gaza. But it is not Dahlan’s money that Hamas is seeking; rather the hope that he mediates with Egypt to ease movement on the Rafah-Egypt border.

With a growing clout and rising number of benefactors, Dahlan’s resurrection is assured, but imposing him on an embattled Fatah faction in the West Bank remains uncertain.

To preclude Dahlan’s attempt at regaining his status within Fatah, Abbas’s PA forces in the Occupied West Bank have been conducting arrests of Dahlan’s supporters. The latter’s armed men are retaliating and clashes have been reported in various parts of the West Bank.

Moreover, Abbas has called for the seventh Fatah conference to be held sometime later this month, where the Abbas faction within Fatah is likely to rearrange the various committees to ensure Dahlan’s supporters are weakened, if not permanently removed.

Considering Dahlan’s strong support base, and his ability to win followers using his access to wealth and regional allies, a move against his followers is likely to backfire, splitting the party, or worse, leading to an armed conflict. Despite Israel’s intentional silence, there are also reports that Israeli defence minister, Avigdor Lieberman, who was tied to Dahlan repeatedly in the past, is keen on ensuring the return of Dahlan at the helm of Fatah.

Tragically, the power struggle rarely involves ordinary Palestinian people, who remain alone facing the Israeli military machine, the growing illegal Jewish settlements, the suffocating siege, while persisting under an unprecedented leadership vacuum.

This is one of the enduring legacies of the Oslo Accords, which divides Palestinians into classes: a powerful class that is subsidized by ‘donor countries’ and is used to serve the interests of the US, Israel and regional powers, and the vast majority of people, barely surviving on handouts, and resisting under growing odds.

This strange contradiction has become the shameful reality of Palestine, and regardless of what the power struggle between Abbas and Dahlan brings, most Palestinians will find themselves facing the same dual enemy, military occupation, on the one hand, and their leadership’s own acquiescence and corruption, on the other.

ramzy-baroud

Dr. Ramzy Baroud has been writing about the Middle East for over 20 years. He is the founder of PalestineChronicle.com. His website is: ramzybaroud.net



Palestinian president can revoke parliamentary immunity of opponents-court

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Ali Sawafta, Reuters
November 7, 2016

GAZA/RAMALLAH – The Palestinian Constitutional Court, a body set up months ago by President Mahmoud Abbas, ruled on Sunday that he can revoke the parliamentary immunity of lawmakers, a move that effectively allows him to sideline rivals.

A verdict issued on Sunday which was swiftly condemned by critics within Abbas’s Fatah faction and Islamist rivals, upheld his decree from 2012 when he lifted the immunity of a major rival, Mohammad Dahlan, and expelled him from Fatah.

Gaza-born Dahlan is seen as a potential successor to Western-backed Abbas, 81. He now lives in self-imposed exile in Abu Dhabi as he would face corruption charges if he returned to the Palestinian territories.

“The Constitutional Court … stated that President Abbas has full authority to cancel the immunity of any parliament member, when the legislative council is not convened,” a statement published by official Palestinian news agency, WAFA, said.

Abbas opponents and analysts said the court’s decision confirmed fears they raised when he formed the nine-judge panel in April, saying it would give him too much power and would effectively allow him to cancel the role of the Palestinian legislative council – the territory’s parliament.

The legislative council has not convened fully since the 2007 civil war that ended with Hamas taking control of the Gaza Strip when they ousted forces loyal to Abbas from the coastal enclave.

The court ruled that Abbas’s 2012 decree to cancel Dahlan’s immunity “had been made according to the authority afforded to the president by law”.

Dahlan made no immediate comment but Majed Abu Shammala, a Fatah official close to him said the court’s decision reflected the political will of Abbas and not the law.

The ruling means that Abbas could also stop Hamas’s Aziz Dweik, the speaker of the legislative council, from becoming caretaker president should Abbas die in office or resign.

Under the constitution, the speaker becomes interim president in such an event.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the group did not recognise the court or its rulings because it was a wholly Fatah entity.



Mohammed Dahlan in his office in Abu Dhabi, Sept. 16, 2015. Photo by STR/AFP/Getty Images 

In Muhammad Dahlan’s Ascent, a Proxy Battle for Legitimacy

By Peter Baker, NY Times
November 02, 2016

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Muhammad Dahlan lives 1,300 miles from his Palestinian brethren in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. His spacious home here in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, features plush sofas, vaulted ceilings and chandeliers. The infinity pool in the back seems to spill into the glistening waterway beyond.

It has been five years since Mr. Dahlan, 55, set foot in the territory Palestinians envision as their future state. But this onetime strongman turned millionaire in exile is the focus of intrigue across the region as Arab leaders seek to force changes over the objections of Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority.

With each passing day, the Israeli-occupied West Bank feels increasingly at war with itself as Mr. Abbas, 81, with heart trouble and no designated successor, lashes out at anyone perceived to support Mr. Dahlan. Arrests, purges, protests and even gunfire mark a proxy battle pitting an old guard struggling for legitimacy against a new generation of leadership with its own checkered history.

“I know that Abu Mazen is scared, and others are scared, that Dahlan comes back,” Mr. Dahlan said, using Mr. Abbas’s nickname and referring to himself in the third person. “Why scared? Because he knows himself what he has done the last 10 years. And because he knows that I know.”

Mr. Dahlan himself was accused of oppressive rule when he ran security in Gaza, blamed by some Palestinians when Hamas seized control in 2007, and is viewed by some as a tool of Israel. But he has become a favorite of the so-called Arab Quartet — Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — which is pressuring Mr. Abbas to allow Mr. Dahlan to return home.

With dark hair, an easy smile and the trim physique of a man who exercises 90 minutes a day, Mr. Dahlan exuded vigor and charm in a recent interview here. He dismissed his reputation as a ruthless former security chief — “Do I look dangerous?” — but was ruthless in condemning his rival.

Unemployment is rampant, Mr. Dahlan said. Schools and hospitals are in desperate shape. Corruption flourishes. Mr. Abbas has failed to end Israel’s occupation, he said, and increasingly runs “a dictatorship” squelching dissent.

“These are signals of a regime that’s like the Assad regime or the Saddam regime,” Mr. Dahlan said, referring to Bashar al-Assad of Syria and Saddam Hussein of Iraq. “What Abu Mazen has done is turned all of what remains of the authority into a security machine.”

Realizing that Mr. Dahlan’s reputation and Gaza roots may make it difficult for him to win popular support in the West Bank, Arab leaders have been quietly advancing a power-sharing arrangement. Another figure, like Nasser al-Kidwa, a nephew of Yasir Arafat, would be the next president, with Mr. Dahlan and others as part of his leadership team. Another possibility could be Marwan Barghouti, a popular figure who is now in an Israeli prison for murder and someone Mr. Dahlan has said he could support.

“Quote me: I don’t want to run in the presidential election,” Mr. Dahlan said, puffing on a small pipe and toggling between English and Arabic during a two-hour conversation. “Is it clear?”

But, he added: “I’m ready to be part of any team. I’m ready to be a soldier. I’m ready to be anything. But with vision and plans and real leadership.”

Still, that does not mean Mr. Kidwa or a similar figure would accept such a deal. In a separate interview, Mr. Kidwa, who has served in a variety of diplomatic positions, including foreign minister, dismissed Mr. Dahlan. “I think the possibility of his returning is not that high, at least in the current stage,” he said. “When bridges are burned, it’s probably hard to be rebuilt.”

For now, there is no presidential election to run in. Even municipal ones have been delayed. Hoping to deflect pressure from the Arab Quartet, Mr. Abbas in recent days visited more supportive regional powers, Turkey and Qatar. He also sat down with Hamas leaders to outmanoeuvre Mr. Dahlan.

“Abbas has such an iron grip that none of his rivals really stands a chance against him right now,” said Grant Rumley, a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, based in Washington, and co-author of a forthcoming biography of Mr. Abbas. “Here he is in the twilight years of his reign, and he is easily one of the most cunning politicians in the region in terms of cutting the knees out from his opponents.”

Mr. Abbas has in recent weeks expelled rivals from his Fatah party and arrested others. On Tuesday, he announced a party conference later this month in a move interpreted as an effort to push out Dahlan allies.

The tension has turned violent at times. Last month, unknown gunmen shot up the family house of Fadi Elsalameen, a critic, with 60 bullets. Mr. Elsalameen, who maintains a Facebook page highly critical of Mr. Abbas, said he worked with Mr. Dahlan on an international initiative but did not belong to his coterie. “I’m not part of Dahlan’s work in Palestine at all,” he said. But Mr. Abbas “is calling all opposition ‘Dahlan.’ ”

That does not mean Mr. Dahlan can rally Palestinians. Yousef Munayyer, executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, said Mr. Dahlan had little street credibility. “This guy is a shady character who foreign governments have looked to to do dirty work quietly, and he has often been willing,” he said.

Mr. Dahlan was born in a Gaza refugee camp and joined the violent fight against Israel as a teenager. Arrested 11 times, he learned Hebrew during five years in Israeli prison and later became Palestinian security chief in Gaza.

He was at Camp David in 2000 when President Bill Clinton tried to broker peace. In his memoir, Mr. Clinton said Mr. Dahlan was among the “most forward-leaning” Palestinian negotiators.

But Martin S. Indyk, the vice president of the Brookings Institution and a diplomat who worked for Mr. Clinton, said Mr. Dahlan played the Americans off Mr. Abbas to marginalize him. “He’s charismatic, smart, manipulative and a clear threat to the old Fatah guard in Ramallah,” he said.

In Gaza, Mr. Dahlan presided over a force accused of torturing detainees and establishing what some called “Dahlanistan.” But when Hamas took control, he was overseas, leading some to say he abandoned the fight. He moved to the West Bank and served as Mr. Abbas’s interior minister until 2011, when the two exchanged corruption charges and Mr. Dahlan fled to Abu Dhabi.

He became close to President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, helping crush his Muslim Brotherhood opposition and conducting diplomatic missions like negotiating a Nile River dam project between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan. He is also said to have a constructive relationship with Israelis, including the hard-line defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman.

Israeli officials refuse to discuss Mr. Dahlan, knowing any positive comments would discredit him among Palestinians. But Amos Yadlin, the director of the Institute for National Security Studies and a former Israeli military intelligence chief, said the government was watching Mr. Dahlan’s manoeuvring.

“As we look into the time after Abu Mazen, he seems like an interesting option,” Mr. Yadlin said, “not so much because of himself but because of the very good connections he has in the Arab world.”

Mr. Dahlan said he had never even met Mr. Lieberman and rejected accusations of corruption, though he did not deny using brutal tactics in Gaza.

“I wasn’t head of the Red Cross,” he said. “No one was killed, no one lost his life. But of course there were mistakes.”

He also admitted to making money. “Two things that I’m not denying,” he said. “That I’m rich, I will not deny it. Ever. And that I’m strong, I will not deny.” He added, “But I work hard to increase my level of life.”

He has used some of his money, and funds from his Arab patrons, to finance charitable activities in Gaza and the West Bank. Some Gazans have used the hashtag #Dahlan in Twitter messages seeking help for sick relatives.

Married and a father of four, Mr. Dahlan describes himself as a workaholic who never vacations; he showed me the backyard garden, where he says he never spends time except to show it off to guests.

“I love achievement,” he said. “It’s my addiction.”


As Abbas’ Isolation Increases, Israeli Military Team Prepares for His Rule’s Collapse

With Mohammed Dahlan threatening him from one side and Avigdor Lieberman from the other, the Palestinian president’s position looked especially shaky this week.

By Amos Harel, Haaretz premium
October 29, 2016

These are the twilight days of the rule of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank. The slow process of collapse in anticipation of the end of his rule continues, and is now accepted as an undeniable fact by most of those involved.

Abbas is facing open challenges from within his own Fatah movement, as well as from Hamas and recently even rather undisguised subversion on the part of Arab nations. His increasing isolation has raised the internal tensions in Ramallah, and it is possible this will have implications both for stability within the Palestinian territories, and for its charged relations with Israel.

It seems Abbas’ more difficult challenge is the threat from within, on the part of senior Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan. Abbas does not hide his contempt for Dahlan, who was in charge when the Gaza Strip fell to Hamas in a violent military revolt in June 2007.

There is undeniable paranoia toward Dahlan in the Palestinian president’s office, but lately some of that feeling seems to be justified. This week the conflict between the Abbas and Dahlan spilled over into violent protests in Palestinian refugee camps in Jenin, Balata in Nablus and al-Am’ari in Ramallah.

What sparked the clash was two conferences organized by Dahlan under academic auspices in Egypt with the participation of hundreds of activists. One of the conferences, held in Cairo in cooperation with a research institute affiliated with the Al-Ahram newspaper, was supposedly on the problem of establishing the Palestinian state. But the leadership of the Palestinian Authority saw it as a provocative show of strength on Dahlan’s part — with Egyptian backing. The PA tried to make it difficult for Palestinians from the territories to travel to Cairo, but many came from the West Bank in indirect routes, while others travelled via Gaza, with the approval of Hamas and Egypt.

When one of them, Jihad Tamliya, a resident of al-Am’ari, returned to the West Bank after the conference, he discovered that his membership in Fatah institutions had been revoked. The response to this, and the removal of other Fatah officials from their posts, was the violent protests in which hundreds participated. In Jenin and Balata these clashes deteriorated into exchanges of fire between gunmen and Palestinian security forces.

Dahlan has touched on one of Abbas’ very sensitive nerves — his legitimacy as the representative of the Palestinian people. It has been over a decade since elections were last held in the Palestinian territories for the presidency or parliament. Abbas has spoken recently about holding elections for the Palestinian National Council, the parliament, but this is a promise his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, also did not keep. It would also require the participation of Palestinians in Arab countries. Abbas’ declarations look unfeasible, mostly in light of the PA’s failure to hold even local elections in the West Bank, which were scheduled for earlier in October, but have been postponed indefinitely.

Those around Abbas fear, apparently for good reason, that Dahlan is seeking to be the secret candidate of the new Arab quartet, composed of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. As Ehud Yaari reported on Channel 2 at the beginning of October, this quartet is pushing for Nasser Al-Kidwa, Arafat’s nephew and the former PLO ambassador to the United Nations, to be Abbas’ successor. But Dahlan is trying to find a place for himself in the three- or four-man leadership in the future, on his way to climbing even higher up the ladder.

Egypt is no longer hiding its support for Dahlan; Egyptian representatives discuss it openly in conversations with Israelis. In Abbas’ circles there is concern that the Saudi announcement this week that it was freezing its funding of the PA is also related to this. At the same time, Dahlan is marketing himself as the only senior Fatah leader who can speak directly with Hamas, despite his dismal record with the organization in the past. (At Arafat’s command, he ordered his men to cut the beards of Hamas inmates in the prison in Gaza in the mid-1990s). This week the Hamas government in Gaza allowed Dahlan’s wife, Jalila, to enter Gaza and hold charity events in which she distributed large sums of money.

Israeli security forces must pay especially close attention to developments in the West Bank. For months, the army has had a team preparing for what happens in the territories the day after Abbas is no longer in power. Israel will not take any active steps, certainly not military ones, to intervene in the transfer of Palestinian rule. But Israel must prepare for various scenarios, including a violent Palestinian conflict over the replacement of Abbas, who is clearly living on borrowed time. The countdown to the end of his rule has begun.

Lieberman pours oil on the fire

Defence minister Avigdor Lieberman added fuel to the fire in an interview he gave this week, his first since entering the Defence Ministry in May, to the East Jerusalem Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds. According to a translation of the article and from the reactions it sparked, it seems Lieberman achieved the two goals he set for himself: Widespread media coverage in Israel, after a long dry period during the Jewish holidays; and establishing himself as the main security and diplomatic voice of the Netanyahu government (whose leader is now busy trying to close down public broadcasting and preparing for a possible diplomatic campaign against Israel by the Obama administration after the presidential election in the United States).

For the most part, Lieberman reiterated the policies he laid out in a background briefing to reporters around the time of his appointment. He repeated his description of Abbas as “not a partner,” a view that has only been sharpened in the wake of the PA leader’s failure to hold local elections. There are his usual threats against Hamas to the effect that if war does break out in Gaza, it will be the “last war” — that is, the end of the Hamas regime. But along with this threat Lieberman added an optimistic signal. If Hamas stops digging tunnels and firing rockets, Lieberman is willing to consider establishing a port in Gaza, and even an airport — plans he definitely had reservations about in the past.

Even though it is hard to see Hamas taking up such an offer — and its spokesmen have already responded that they will never give up their weapons — Lieberman’s statements were also a message to the PA. He wants to work with the centers of power in the Palestinian territories, and not with empty national symbols, which is how he views Abbas.

His two declarations are a demonstrative slap in the face for Abbas, whose security forces are continuing to rescue Israeli soldiers and civilians every week when they enter the Palestinian territories by mistake. The tight security coordination mechanism between the PA and Israel has also helped reduce the violence in the West Bank over the past few months.

Lieberman entered office under the shadow of his empty threat to eliminate senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. “We will kill him within 48 hours,” he declared shortly before taking up the defence minister post. Now he speaks about a diplomatic alternative, with practical interim arrangements, as the natural extension of his “sticks and carrots” plan for the West Bank, which he presented during the summer. He has a double message for the Palestinians: I’m your address, I’m the landlord; and I am speaking to you over Abbas’ head. We can assume that this interview, too, was another thing they had to worry about in Ramallah this week.



Dahlan supporters protest in the Square of the Unknown Soldier, Gaza city.

Supporters of dismissed Fatah leader Muhammad Dahlan burn pictures of Abbas in Gaza

By Ma’an news
October 07/09, 2016

GAZA — Hundreds of supporters of Muhammad Dahlan, a dismissed leader of the Fatah movement in Gaza exiled from the occupied Palestinian territory, marched on Unknown Soldier square in central Gaza on Thursday and burned pictures of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

According to a Ma’an reporter, the protesters held Palestinian flags along with the flags of the Fatah movement and demanded presidential elections, while burning photographs of Abbas.

The Fatah movement, to which Abbas is affiliated, released an official statement urging its members not to participate in the protest.

The demonstration came amid local elections in Palestine that have unravelled in recent weeks, with the Palestinian government to postpone the elections for four months after coming under heavy criticism when the Palestinian Supreme Court announced on Monday [October 3rd] that the elections would exclude the besieged Gaza Strip.

Dahlan was expelled from Fatah’s governing body in June 2011 and once headed the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority (PA)’s preventative security forces.
PA forces raided his Ramallah home and detained several of his bodyguards shortly after an appeal submitted by Dahlan against his dismissal was rejected.

Dahlan was voted out of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, the party’s governing body, on June 12 that year, for suspected “criminal acts” that were not specified.

Reports leaked in 2011 said the former Fatah strongman in Gaza was suspected of building a private armed militia in the West Bank. Dahlan denied the allegations, responding with an online video message.

“A coup against whom? Do we have an authority in Ramallah to coup against? We are under occupation, one female soldier rules over the West Bank; the Civil Administration governs the West Bank,” he said at the time.
Dahlan was formerly a leading Fatah figure known for his fierce opposition to the Hamas movement. He led a merciless crackdown on the group in the 1990s, rounding up thousands of Islamists who refused to recognize the legitimacy of the newly-created PA.

But he fell from grace in June 2007 after the humiliating rout of his forces by Hamas fighters during days of fierce street battles in Gaza, when Hamas expelled Fatah forces from the territory.

Two years later, he returned to the political stage when he was elected to the Fatah central committee in August 2009.

But in December 2010, he was suspended from the committee which said it had set up a commission of inquiry to examine his finances and claims he tried to set up a personal militia.


Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić awards a decoration to Mohammed Dahlan, April 2013. (Photo from Tanjug News Agency) Dahlan has been the fixer for the UAE’s secretive investments in Serbia:

The reasons for UAE investment in Serbia are shrouded in secrecy, although Serbian sources have revealed to MEE that they go far beyond any potential financial rewards.

The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan has been accused of acting as a proxy for the US and Israel in Eastern Europe while also attempting to exploit a loosely regulated Serbian arms market to distribute weapons across the Middle East.

Behind the huge investment lies the shadowy figure of exiled Palestinian strongman Mohammed Dahlan. He is said to be at the centre of a web facilitating communication between the UAE with American and Israeli intelligence figures while also aiding corrupt Emirati investments in Serbia that have lined the pockets of their political leaders.

from The UAE’s shadowy dealings in Serbia, MEE

Dahlan was also accused by Fatah leaders in 2011 of poisoning the late Yasser Arafat, but PA sources had told Ma’an at the time that the West Bank government had come under international and regional pressure not to pursue Dahlan.

In 2015, Dahlan made headlines once again when he called for integrating all Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, into the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), adding that he was not planning on becoming president but had the right to run in a general election “if he wants.”

Dahlan also called to stop security coordination with Israel, and said he considers the Oslo Accords to be invalid.

International media has also reported plans by several Middle Eastern countries to buttress Dahlan as the next Palestinian president to replace his rival Abbas.
Critics have accused Abbas of refusing to relinquish his seat as president despite popular support for him to step down.

The Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) found in a 2016 poll that at least 64 percent of the Palestinian public support the resignation of Abbas.

However, according to the same poll, only 4 percent of the Palestinian public support Dahlan to become the successor of Abbas, while 33 percent support Marwan Barghouti, an imprisoned Fatah leader, to replace Abbas as the next Palestinian president.

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