A top aide to Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas was heard cursing the Palestinian leader as “the son of 66 whores” in leaked recordings published by a news site affiliated with the rival Hamas faction.
The remarks by Hussein al-Sheikh, who was also tapped as secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization this year, exposes the internal tensions within the Palestinian leadership as top officials jostle for power ahead of a post-Abbas era. Al-Sheikh is seen as the most likely successor to the aging Abbas.
Al-Sheikh accused Abbas of being “a partner in the chaos and has an interest for it to remain.”
It was unclear if the context of the accusation was referencing recent protests against the PA or the ongoing clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian terrorists in the West Bank.
File/Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, center, speaks after laying a wreath at the tomb of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the the West Bank city of Ramallah as Palestinians commemorate the 14th anniversary of his death, Sunday, Nov. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi)
Abbas is the “son of 66 whores; he comes and gives his decisions without explanations. He is not right in the head if he thinks we can do the right thing without explaining his intentions,” al-Sheikh is heard saying.
“It pains me to say these things, but this process is completely different from after the death of Yasser Arafat,” he said, referring to Abbas’ predecessor who has been posthumously lionized by the Palestinian public and its leadership, despite his terrorist past.
The wildly unpopular Abbas is in his 17th year of a four-year term and has not called for elections since 2006. Polls show Hamas, the terror group that rules the Gaza Strip and Abbas‘ chief political rival in the West Bank, would win if elections were held today.