On his last visit to Cairo, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas reportedly told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi that he does not intend to run in any future election.

Palestinian officials who accompanied Abbas to Cairo quoted him as saying that he does not want to be a “president for life” and that he is eager to see new presidential elections take place in the Palestinian territories as soon as possible.

“My age and health don’t allow me to remain in power,” the 81-year-old Abbas explained. “My term in office expired several years ago and I’m still in power only because of the Hamas, which staged a coup and is controlling the Gaza Strip and refusing to allow new elections.”

Abbas’s remarks came amid increased talk about a “battle for succession” that has been raging for weeks among the top brass of the Palestinian Authority leadership in the West Bank.

For now, it seems that there is no shortage of Palestinians who consider themselves “natural” and “worthy” successors to Abbas, who recently celebrated the 11th year of his four-year-term in office.

Abbas’s refusal to appoint a vice president, choose a possible successor, or share power, as well as his insistence on managing the PA as a one-man show, has left the door wide open for speculation as to what will happen the day he is gone.

Some Palestinians expect a smooth transition of power, while many fear that the “battle for succession” will lead to anarchy and violence.

Palestinian journalist Munir Abu Rizek recently sounded an alarm bell when he disclosed that some senior Palestinian officials and their supporters in the West Bank have been purchasing weapons in preparation for the post-Abbas era. He predicted that the anarchy that could erupt in the West Bank would be similar to what happened in the Gaza Strip before Hamas expelled the Palestinian Authority nearly a decade ago. Abu Rizek did not rule out the possibility that Palestinian cities in the West Bank would be turned into cantons ruled by rival Fatah officials and warlords.

However, the question is not which Palestinian official will succeed Abbas, so much as who will elect the next president and how? Besides, does it really matter who will be the next president?

Clearly, Abbas’s successor will not be elected through the ballot box. There are no free and democratic elections in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Hamas and the PA, however, disagree why this is so.

Hamas is convinced that the Palestinian Authority will never allow elections in the West Bank because of the likelihood that Hamas would win, as it did in the 2006 parliamentary elections.

The PA, for its part, argues that Hamas will never allow a free election in the Gaza Strip because it does not tolerate any competition.

In any event, since Hamas and the Palestinian Authority crack down on each other’s supporters in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, no free elections will emerge. So it is clear that an election to choose a successor for Abbas is off the table, at least for the foreseeable future. That is, of course, unless the PA leadership decides to hold separate elections for the West Bank — an option that seems to be highly unlikely. Holding a separate vote in the West Bank would result in Palestinians accusing the PA of “solidifying” the split between the Gaza Strip and West Bank, thus destroying the effort to establish a unified Palestinian state in these two areas.

Therefore, it is up to the ruling Fatah’s Central Committee to elect a new president. This body, established in 1963, is the most senior decision-making body of the PLO and consists of twenty-one Fatah officials, all known to be Abbas loyalists. But in recent years, the make-up of the Committee has changed a bit.

One of its members, Othman Abu Gharbiyeh, died a few weeks ago during open-heart surgery in an Indian hospital. Another member, Marwan Barghouti, is currently serving a prison term of five-life sentences for his role in terror attacks against Israelis during the Second Intifada. A third member, Mohamed Dahlan, was expelled from Fatah five years ago after falling out with Abbas and his sons.

Yet the Fatah leadership will not hand over the presidency to anyone who is not from its ranks, not even an independent and widely-respected figure such as former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

So the decision as to who will replace Abbas will be in the hands of 18 senior Fatah officials — all members of the faction’s Central Committee. The last time this committee held internal elections was in July 2009, when Abbas was elected as chairman.

More than half of the Committee members have announced their lack of interest in succeeding Abbas. But that may change the day after Abbas’s departure. Indeed, Abbas’s presence seems to discourage any such ambition. The PA president has expelled any Fatah official suspected of setting his eyes on the presidency. Mohamed Dahlan is the best example of how Abbas is quick to get rid of any official who may pose a threat to his throne. Since his expulsion from Fatah, Dahlan has been forced to relocate to the United Arab Emirates, after Abbas accused him of corruption and murder.

Six of the Committee members are over the age of 70, while most are in their 60s. Only two of them are in their 50s: Marwan Barghouti and Hussein Sheikh. But those two are not considered serious successors, although some public opinion polls have shown that many Palestinians would vote for Barghouti.

Today, Palestinians point to at least three candidates whose chances of succeeding Abbas are strong: Saeb Erekat, Mohammed Shtayyeh and Majed Faraj.

Erekat and Shtayyeh are members of the Fatah Central Committee, while Faraj, who is also a senior Fatah official, heads the Palestinian Authority’s General Intelligence Force in the West Bank.

Last year, Abbas promoted Erekat to the position of PLO Secretary-General, a move that was interpreted by many Palestinians as a sign that Abbas sees him as his successor. But Faraj is also very close to Abbas, who relies on him blindly when it comes to protecting the PA regime against Hamas and other political rivals.

Regarding Barghouti, Fatah officials said this week that it would make no sense to have a president who is in prison and thus not able to perform his duties.

Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, who previously headed An-Najah University in Nablus, regards himself as a potential successor. One of his aides said that there is “no reason why such a widely-respected man should not become the next president.” Hamdallah, however, holds no official position in Fatah and has no power base there.

In this regard, Hamdallah is not different from his predecessor, Salam Fayyad. The two men do not have enough “credentials” among Palestinians, because they did not serve time in Israeli prisons and were never active members of the Palestinian “resistance.”

Because of the power struggle between members of the Fatah Central Committee, there is a chance that they could elect a veteran Fatah figure who is not a Committee member. Faraj is one of the “outsiders,” but there is no shortage of such people.

Another scenario that could take place, in wake of the internal squabbling and sharp differences within Fatah, sees its leaders forming a “collective leadership” to manage the affairs of the Palestinians. Tawfik Tirawi, a Fatah Central Committee member and a former head of the PA’s General Intelligence Force in the West Bank, lately hinted at this option when he said that, “President Abbas will be the last president of the Palestinians.”

Finally, a last question needs to be addressed: Does it really matter who replaces Abbas? In other words, will the next leader be able to deviate from the policies and strategy that have already been drawn by Abbas and his Fatah leadership? More importantly, will the next president be able to accept any peace deal with Israel that has already been rejected by Abbas and Yasser Arafat?

After Arafat died, Arafatism lived on. The same applies to Mahmoud Abbas. No real changes, if ever, should be expected in the Palestinian attitude towards the conflict with Israel after his departure.

After Yasser Arafat died, Arafatism lived on. The same applies to Mahmoud Abbas. No real changes, if ever, should be expected in the Palestinian attitude towards the conflict with Israel after his departure. Pictured above: Yasser Arafat (L) and Mahmoud Abbas (R) in a Fatah propaganda poster.

Once again, the Palestinians will be the big losers. No one is going to ask their opinion about the next president and they will not be given the opportunity to cast their ballots in a presidential election.

Fatah’s Central Committee in the West Bank brings to mind the Politburo of a Communist Party, which made decisions on behalf of the people, though not with their best interests in mind. In the Gaza Strip, the Palestinians will continue to be ruled by Hamas, an Islamist movement that has brought nothing but destruction and disaster to Palestinians.

So, in the end, the question of Abbas’s successor is rather unimportant. The Palestinians will continue to be ruled by dictatorships that do not give a damn about their people.

Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist is based in Jerusalem.

Sex is a taboo topic in the conservative Palestinian society. So it came as a nasty surprise to many when the rampant sexual harassment in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip was recently brought to public attention.

A damning report, entitled “Gaza: Sexual Harassment and Bribery Chase Job-Seekers,” was published in the Beirut-based, Hezbollah-affiliated newspaper Al-Akhbar. Amjad Yaghi, the young Palestinian journalist who wrote the exposé, showed extraordinary courage in doing so.

Hamas, needless to say, was not amused.

Yaghi wrote that

“[some] public personalities in the Gaza Strip are no longer abiding by the professional standards of their moral work after being overcome by their sexual instincts and professional duties. They are exploiting their status, especially their decision-making regarding employment, appointments and providing services and funds to projects in light of the absence of working opportunities for women.”

According to Yaghi, the report was published in a Lebanese newspaper because the Palestinian media forbids stories that might enrage the public and “harm” Palestinian traditions and morals.

Yaghi sets out clearly the Catch-22:

“The victims do not have the freedom to talk about their experiences and that is why most of the women who are subjected to sexual harassment remain silent. … They are afraid that they could be deprived of new employment or that their reputation would be affected.”

The report found at least 36 Palestinian women working in various fields who had fallen victim to sexual harassment and exploitation. Reflecting Yaghi’s description of their dilemma, 25 of the victims refused to provide full details about their experiences, and the remaining 11 agreed to talk openly about the problem only on condition of anonymity.

Sexual crimes of various sorts were reported. Twenty of the women reported experiencing sexual harassment at their workplaces, while ten others said they were asked to provide “sexual bribes.” Six of the women told Yaghi that they had been sexually assaulted at work.

A 27-year-old female journalist told the Yaghi that a Palestinian official working for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) invited her to his office for a job interview:

“When she came to his office, the official tried to approach and touch her, but she walked away and left the office… The following day, the official was more honest with her; he offered her the job in return for having sexual intercourse with him. She was shocked and stopped talking to him.”

The woman believes that the senior status of the official who sexually harassed her will protect him from being held accountable for his behavior. She also alluded to a larger and deeper problem in the Arab and Islamic world: “Our society doubts the integrity of a woman who talks about honor.” As a third obstacle to prosecution, she noted that under Palestinian law, UNRWA officials enjoy immunity from being prosecuted.

Immunity from prosecution for sexual crimes, however, apparently does not apply to the top echelons of internationally funded organizations. For example, the director of an international aid organization in the Gaza Strip, who purportedly offered a 28-year-old job applicant a highly-paid position in return for sex.

Lawyers in the Gaza Strip would seem to have enough to do without sexually harassing their employees. But a 23-year-old female legal trainee told the investigative journalist that her boss, a 45-year-old male attorney, made sexual advances to her and to three of her female colleagues. Another male lawyer offered a female colleague 50 shekels ($12) if she allowed him to touch her body.

According to the report, 13 female journalists in the Gaza Strip have also faced sexual harassment and assault in recent years.

Yaghi found that the Palestinian Basic Law does not tackle the issue of sexual harassment in Palestinian society. While the law does refer to corruption in the workplace, sexual harassment is not detailed as a form of corruption.

Much has been written recently about the widespread increase in child abuse in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, where children are exposed to constant brainwashing by armed groups. Last week, a new video surfaced of how the radical Islamist groups in the Gaza Strip incite Palestinian children. The video features children dressed as Islamic Jihad militiamen, play-acting the detonation of a bomb near an Israeli tank. The audience, the parents of these child actors, can be heard cheering and applauding.

In a society where children are indoctrinated to murder Jews, it comes as no surprise that women are victims of different kinds of exploitation as well.

Yaghi keeps the identities of the male offenders out of the public eye. Yet these are clearly senior officials working in the private and public sectors. Just as clearly, the sexual harassment victim of the UNRWA official was right: the Hamas connections of these criminals will no doubt keep them out of jail and in positions of power.

Where are the women’s rights organizations now? And where are the European and American overseers of the international human rights organizations in the Gaza Strip? Could it be that these worthy watchdogs only awaken from their slumber when they smell fresh Israeli meat? Meanwhile, how many women will be sexually assaulted and harassed while these watchdogs sleep?

When it comes to sexual harassment, where are the European and American overseers of the international human rights organizations in the Gaza Strip? Under Palestinian law, UNRWA officials enjoy immunity from being prosecuted, and the Hamas connections of officials that engage in sexual harassment will no doubt keep them out of jail and in positions of power. Pictured at right: Pierre Krähenbühl, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, meets with Federica Mogherini, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs.

Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visited Ramallah last week, and Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and his top officials are laughing their heads off.

Why not laugh? Biden arrived in the region hoping to persuade the Palestinian leaders to issue a “condemnation” of the reign of terror, which they continue to describe as a “popular and peaceful uprising.” This in itself reeks of gallows humor.

But what Biden got was even funnier, from the point of view of Abbas and his friends.

The Palestinian president offered “condolences” over the killing of a U.S. citizen in Jaffa the previous day: “The President [Abbas] offered his condolences over the killing of the US citizen, while stressing at the same time that the occupation authorities have killed 200 Palestinians over the past five months,” according to a statement released by the PA leadership in Ramallah.

Abbas’s crocodile tears were shed for Taylor Force, a West Point graduate from Texas who was stabbed to death by a Palestinian during a rampage on the Jaffa beachfront promenade. Abbas is doubtless also upset because Israel has killed Palestinian stabbers and shooters.

Just before Biden arrived in Ramallah, Abbas’s Fatah faction praised the murderer of Force, calling him a “martyr.” But Fatah was quick to delete the posts to avoid embarrassing the Palestinian leadership during Biden’s visit.

It seems that the murder of an American visitor is condemnable, but the murder of some 34 Israelis since last October, including a pregnant woman and civilians, is somewhat less so.

Where was the condemnation of the wounding of nine Israelis in the attack that killed Taylor Force? Where was the condemnation of the attacks the took place on that very day in Jerusalem and Petah Tikva?

But Abbas explained everything to Biden: Israel was in fact fully responsible for the “violence and bloodshed” because of the “occupation” and “settlements.”

Here is a dirty little secret: the Palestinian attackers were not driven to murder Jews because of “settlements” and “checkpoints.”

Check their Facebook accounts: what fueled their hatred were the lies they had been fed for the past few years by President Abbas and other Palestinian leaders, concerning Jews “desecrating” Islamic holy sites and plotting to destroy them. No checkpoint snags, no settlement issues, no protests against construction of new apartments in Jerusalem for Jewish families.

Many of these Palestinians went for Israeli blood because they have been taught — by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and other Palestinian groups — to hate Israel. And they do not give a damn whether that Jew lives in Jaffa or in the West Bank. They also do not give a damn if some of their victims are Arabs.

Yet the comedy continues. Biden is reported to have urged Abbas and the Palestinian leadership to stop the anti-Israel incitement in their official media and on social media. Abbas vehemently denied that this incitement was taking place, and indeed, explained that the US leader had gotten things mixed up entirely: it was Israel that was guilty of incitement against the Palestinians.

While Abbas was busy offering his condolences for the killing of the U.S. citizen, his ruling Fatah faction was busy glorifying Palestinian assailants who killed Israelis.

In one instance, Fatah published an announcement inviting Palestinians to mark the 38th anniversary of the “martyrdom” of Dalal Al-Mughrabi.

Al-Mughrabi was a Fatah member who participated in the 1978 Coastal Road massacre in Israel, in which 38 civilians were killed, including 13 children.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visited Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on March 10, hoping to persuade Abbas to issue a “condemnation” of the wave of terror attacks against Israelis. The next day, Abbas’s Fatah party invited Palestinians to commemorate the 38th anniversary of the “martyrdom” of Dalal Al-Mughrabi. Al-Mughrabi was a Fatah member who participated in the 1978 Coastal Road massacre in Israel, in which 38 civilians were killed, including 13 children.

The condolence message was also long enough for Fatah to praise Palestinian assailants, including Abdel Malek Abu Kharoub, who carried out a recent shooting attack in Jerusalem. In a post on its official Facebook account, Fatah hailed Abu Kharoub as a “hero and martyr.”

Of course neither Biden nor any of his advisors and aides saw these posts. They prefer to continue burying their heads in the sand and pretending that once the “peace process” is revived, everything will be fine.

So it is business as usual for Abbas and crew. As in any comedy, there is a clown, and Biden was played for a fool by a PA leadership that finds that it pays to point its finger at Israel.

In Arabic, a language in which Western leaders are perhaps not fluent, Palestinian media outlets and spokesmen vomit poison against Israel. Condemnation of attacks on Israelis would be rather unlikely in such a drama.

And so the curtain rises on another act of the ceremonial, make-believe theater of the Middle East. In Abbas’s sneaky script, it is about settlements. In reality, it is about the refusal of the Americans to read, speak or even translate Arabic.

Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist, is based in Jerusalem.