The PLO Central Council convened in Ramallah on August 15-17, 2018, following other conferences and meetings held in recent months by PLO institutions, the Palestinian Authority (PA), and Fatah. These meetings were designed to deal with the political challenges on the agenda, among them the marked change in the attitude of the US administration toward the Palestinians and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as efforts to promote a lull/arrangement between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip without the PA, led by Egypt with American backing and in coordination with Israel.

The Central Council meeting took place in the shadow of a threat to the PLO’s status as the exclusive representative of the Palestinian people, and the possibility of a solution imposed on the Palestinians that would sever the Gaza Strip from the West Bank. In addition, there is evidence of some desire to isolate Abu Mazen himself given his opposition to any measure that might promote the Trump administration’s policy in the region, especially any measure that Abu Mazen regards as liable to cause a split among the Palestinians.

The rhetoric at this conference therefore featured threats and warnings against any action harmful to Palestinian national interests and liable to play into the hands of the United States and Israel, which ostensibly aim to perpetuate the split among the Palestinians, prevent formation of a Palestinian state according to the framework outlined in 1988, and promote the “deal of the century” that President Trump’s emissaries have drafted over the past 18 months.

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