Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian President, Israel, Hamas, Quick facts

Mahmoud Abbas, Biography

Mahmoud Abbas is the president of Palestine and the Palestinian National Authority. He is also known as the kunya of Abu Mazen. Abbas has been the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization since 2004, PNA president since January 2005, State of Palestine president since May 2005, and a member and chairman of the Fatah party since 2009.

Mahmoud Abbas, Age and Birthday

He was born on November 15, 1935, in Safed in Galilee, Mandatory Palestine, now called Israel. During the Palestine War of 1948, his family fled to Syria.

Mahmoud Abbas, Education

Abbas studied law at the University of Damascus before moving to Egypt. He earned a Candidate of Sciences degree at the Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow. The Candidate of Sciences degree is the Soviet equivalent of a PhD. He wrote The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism.

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Mahmoud Abbas, Marriage

Mahmoud is married to Amina Abbas. They had three sons. Mazen Abbas, the eldest, who ran a building company in Doha, died in Qatar of a heart attack in 2002 at the age of 42. Kunya of Abu Mazen means “father of Mazen.” The second Yasser Abbas, is a Canadian businessman who was named after former PA leader Yasser Arafat. Tareq, the youngest, is a business executive. Abbas has eight grandchildren., Six of them are part of the Seeds of Peace. An initiative that brings them in touch with young Israelis.

Mahmoud Abbas, Israel

Israeli radio reported that Abbas had secured a thirty-day ceasefire from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad on January 23, 2005. However, lone Palestinians attacked Israeli settlements, and Abbas quickly fired some of his security officers for not stopping the attacks during the ceasefire.
Abbas floated the idea of accepting a two-state solution with Israel in 2012, outlining Palestine as existing within the 1967 borders with a capital in East Jerusalem. Abbas, in an interview with Israeli Channel 2 TV, said, “It is my right to see the Israeli city of Safed, but not to live there.”The negative reaction he received to these words forced him to backpedal.

Most Israeli officials consider him a non-threatening, violence-abhorring, strategic asset rather than a peace partner.
Abbas repeated to the European Parliament a false press report that rabbis in Israel were calling for Palestinian wells to be poisoned in June 2016 before retracting the statement the following day, saying that the claim was not true and stating that he didn’t intend to do harm to Judaism or to offend Jewish people around the world. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, said Abbas’s statement spread blood libel.

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Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas

Abbas gave Hamas a ten-day deadline in May 2006 to accept the 1967 ceasefire terms.
Abbas called for new legislative elections in December of the same year to bring to an end the parliamentary stalemate between Fatah and Hamas and form a national coalition government.

A unity government was formed on March 17, 2007, incorporating members of both Hamas and Fatah, with Ismail Haniyeh as prime minister and independent politicians taking many key positions. Abbas dissolved the Hamas-led unity government of Haniyeh and declared a state of emergency in June 2007. He appointed Salam Fayyad in his place. Hamas armed forces retaliated by taking control of Palestinian Authority positions controlled by Fatah militias.On 26, 2023, he met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was present. The objective of the meeting was Turkey’s effort to reconcile Fatah with Hamas.

Mahmoud Abbas, Quick Facts

Full name: Mahmoud Abbas

Born: November 15, 1935
Age:88 years
Birthplace: Safad Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine
Books: Through Secret Channels, The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism
Office: President of the State of Palestine since 2008
Party: Fatah
Children: Yasser Abbas, Mazen Abbas, and Tareq Abbas
Net worth: $100 million
Height: 1.79m
Weight: 75kg