Mahmoud Abbas‘s “temporary” replacement. A profile of Hussein al-Sheikh

Peloni:  The fact of the PA being an American equity, having been funded, armed, and trained by the US, places an ever greater importance upon this choice of Abu Mazen’s heir apparent.  While Al Sheikh’s record is not that of a peacemaker, it should be further recalled that the PA is not a peace partner, that Mazen is a financial facilitator of every successful terror attack in Israel which renders dead Jews, and that the destruction of Israel is not the known intention of the PA and always was.

Same character. Different suit.

Barry Shaw |   Oct 27, 2025

Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman meets with Palestine Liberation Organization Secretary General Hussein al-Sheikh at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on October 4, 2022. [Photo by U.S. Department of State from United States – Public Domain, Wikipedia]

According to the Palestinian Basic Law, in the event of incapacity due to illness or death, the PA president is supposed to be replaced by the speaker of the Legislative Council.

But, if you are looking for democracy, don’t look for it in the Palestinian Arab political arena. The Palestinian Legislative Council has not been active since the Hamas terror group seized power by force in Gaza in 2007, and no elections have taken place in twenty years.

Meaning, Palestinian Arabs did not vote Abbas into power because they voted for Hamas.

The now corrupt aging dictator, 89-year-old Mahmoud Abbas, just appointed Hussein al-Sheikh as his temporary successor.

A profile of this potential Palestinian Arab leader does not make palatable reading.

He joined Fatah during his teenage years and was imprisoned by Israel as a “political prisoner” – a Palestinian Arab euphemism for convicted terrorist – “for 11 years, between 1978 and 1989.”

On March 21, 2002, a Palestinian Arab suicide bomber blew himself up in downtown Jerusalem. In the attack, he murdered three people – Tzipi and Gad Shemesh (who were returning home after a pregnancy exam) and Yitzchak Cohen. Dozens were injured.

The attack was planned by two Fatah terrorists – Abd El-Karim Aweis and Nasser Shawish.

Aweis stated that on the morning of the attack, he, Shawish, and the suicide bomber went to the offices of Hussein al-Sheikh, who was then the General Secretary of Fatah in Judea and Samaria.

With the suicide belt was already prepared, al-Sheikh, who had previously served as a Colonel in the PA’s Preventive Security, handed the suicide bomber money and two hand grenades.

After this terror outrage, al-Sheikh was never arrested and never stood trial for his involvement and contribution to the murders.

Instead, al-Sheikh was included in the 2007 “Wanted Terrorists Deal.” As part of the deal, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised the Fatah leadership that Israel would stop hunting hundreds of Fatah terrorists, including mass murderers who were responsible for the murder of hundreds of Israelis, so long as the terrorists laid down their arms and refrained from further participation in terror. (Laughter, anyone?)

While most of the terrorists included in the deal breached its provisions, less than a handful were arrested and prosecuted.

When Israel responded to the PLO-PA’s “Pay-for-Slay” policy by passing the Freeze Law, Hussein al-Sheikh, then the PA Minister of Civil Affairs, threatened that if Israel implemented the law, the decision would have “political, security, and financial consequences, and our people’s leadership will implement a series of decisions and steps in response to this.”

Under pressure from Israel, when banks operating under the PA decided to close the accounts of 35,000 terrorists, al-Sheikh responded by saying, “The decision to close the prisoners’ accounts in the banks harms the dignity of every Palestinian, is unacceptable, and constitutes submission to the occupation’s will.”

When one infamous terrorist, Nasser Abu-Hamid, responsible for the murder of seven people, died in prison from cancer, Al-Sheikh was quick to libel Israel as mistreating Palestinian Arab prisoners while referring to Abu-Hamid as a “heroic prisoner.”

Al-Sheikh added, “What interests us now is that we sent a direct request to hand over his body to his family, his friends, and his people, so that they will honor him as is fitting for a Martyr and fitting for his family, the fighting family, which all words are dumbstruck before the greatness of this family and this mother.”

Tellingly, just a few months before the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre, on the backdrop of a wave of Palestinian Arab terror, Al-Sheikh reiterated his call for the PA and Hamas to bridge their gaps.

In an interview on Palestinian television, al-Sheikh called on all the Palestinian Arab national “factions” – another Palestinian Arab euphemism that refers to the different Palestinian Arab groups, including the genocidal terrorists in Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad – to create a broad front against what he called “the Israeli aggression.”

He added his hope that the dialogue between the PA and Hamas will succeed since “You need to fight this enemy (Israel) on all fronts, in all arenas, without exception. You need to fight it on the ground and in the international organizations and authorities.”

After the October 7 massacre, al-Sheikh continued to refer to Hamas as “brothers.”

When Israel eliminated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in July 2024, al-Sheikh made sure to publicize on his X account that he had contacted another Hamas leader, Khaled Mashaal, to convey his condolences. In the post, al-Sheikh claimed that the “martyrdom” of Haniyeh “constituted a great loss for the Palestinian people.”

When Abbas appointed him to the position of Secretary General of the PLO Executive Committee, only 26% of the voters supported the move. In surveys conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.

While Abbas and the Palestinian Arab leadership will try to present al-Sheikh as a moderate, pragmatic new face of the PLO, the truth of the matter is that he is just another terrorist wearing a suit cut from the same cloth as his predecessors. He glorifies terrorists and is insistent on the rights of the terrorists to receive substantial cash payments as a reward for their participation in terror.

-He consistently refers to Israel as the “enemy.”

-He refers to the genocidal terrorists from Hamas as “brothers.”

-He is content being wined and dined by the international community, including in the past with former members of the Biden administration, and being appointed to high Palestinian Authority positions, even if the Palestinian Arabs do not want him.

(With acknowledgement to Lt-Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch for the background research.)

Barry Shaw is at the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies.

(To subscribe to his substack: https://ko-fi.com/barryshaw)