Abbas ousts opposition members from the PLO

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas recently ousted opposition members from the PLO, Al-Resalah newspaper reported yesterday.

Abbas said he expelled Taysir Quba’a, member of the Palestinian National Council (PNC) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), who is widely known for his anticorruption stances, because he is in bad health. Quba’a refuted the claims, calling Abbas’s step an attempt to marginalise his opposition and tighten his grip on the PNC.

Quba’a said more members of the PNC would be ousted. He added that this casts doubts on Abbas’s intentions regarding the time and place of the upcoming meeting of the PNC.

He expected the PNC meeting to be held in Ramallah so as to undermine plans to include Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the meeting.

Previously, Abbas ousted Yasser Abed Rabbo in a measure described as a “comedy play” and “unaccepted dictatorship”.

New leaks revealed that Abbas has been trying to exclude Hassan Khreisheh, the independent MP and member of the PNC. The leaks also revealed plans to oust PFLP leaders from the preparation committee for the PNC.

Senior PFLP leader Abdul Alim Da’na called Abbas a “dictator” and said that the PLO’s leadership refuses any opposition.

He pointed out that Abbas and his team of PLO leaders have neglected the major decisions such as the halt of security cooperation with Israel and are now working on suppressing the ongoing intifada in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.

Da’na also said that Abbas and his team are working to undermine any attempts to unite the Palestinian factions under the umbrella of the PNC and the PLO in the light of attempts to bring Hamas and Islamic Jihad to both of these bodies.