Rawhi Fattouh

Rawhi Fattuh (Arabic: روحي فتوح, Rawḥī Fatūḥ, also transliterated as Rauhi Fattouh; born 23 August 1949) is the current Chairman of Palestinian Legislative Council, having held the position since February 2020.^[1] He had previously held the same position in 2004, and for that reason he became the interim President of the Palestinian Authority, following the death of Yasser Arafat on 11 November 2004, until 15 January 2005. Under Palestinian law, he held the Presidency only until elections were held.^[2] The elections were held and won by Mahmoud Abbas, who was sworn in on 15 January 2005.^[3] Fattuh was again elected to the Central Committee of Fatah in December 2016.^[4]

Fattuh was elected in 1996 as a representative to the Palestinian Legislative Council of the town of Rafah (in the Gaza Strip), where he was born and has lived for most of his life. He served as secretary to the PLC until October 2003, when he became the minister of agriculture in the government of Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia.

In July 2004, Fatah nominated Fattuh as its candidate for Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council,^[5] with 34 Fatah delegates voting in favour and 10 against.

In November 2004, Fattuh supported Ahmed Qurei, his predecessor as speaker and former prime minister, to succeed Arafat as president.

Fattuh was sworn in as interim President of the Palestinian National Authority on 11 November 2004 after the death of Arafat. After taking the oath, Fattuh praised Arafat as a martyr of the Palestinian people and promised to faithfully follow Arafat's policies.^[6]

Fattuh did not run in the 2006 legislative election and is no longer a member of the PLC.^[3]

In 2022, Fattouh chaired the 18-member Fatah-dominated PLO Executive Committee. Fattouh, a member of the PNC's founding generation, was considered by analysts to be dull and lacking any political influence to actually rule.^[7]

Israel revoked the entry permits to Israel for Fattouh and two other senior Palestinian officials in January 2023 after they visited Karim Younis, who was freed from prison after being convicted of murdering an Israeli soldier in 1980.^[8]

On 30 November, Fattouh was nominated by Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas to assume the presidency in the event of his incapacity.^[9]

At an event in Algeria in 2023, Fattuh claimed that Arabs had inhabited Jerusalem for over 1.5 million years, while Jews had only been in the Middle East for 6,000 years. The oldest human fossils found date to around 300,000 years ago, 1.2 million years later than Fattouh's claim.^[10]