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What Matters Now to journalist Adam Rasgon: The future of the
Palestinian Authority
Palestinian affairs reporter looks at the rise of potential Mahmoud
Abbas successor and the decline of the PA he hopes to lead, explaining
why both have lost support of the masses
By JACOB MAGID
Today, 8:59 am
4

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key
issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now.

Next month will mark the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Oslo
Accords in which Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed to establish the
Palestinian Authority, which was supposed to be a temporary body
responsible for limited Palestinian self-governance over parts of the
West Bank and the Gaza Strip — a body that would serve as the foundation
of a future Palestinian state.

Three decades later, we’re about as far away from that vision as ever.
While the PA still exists, and one of the leaders who signed the Oslo
Accords, Mahmoud Abbas, remains at the helm, the mechanism he operates
largely fails to deliver for its people.

But should the Palestinians’ problems be Israel’s as well?

This week’s What Matters Now guest, journalist Adam Rasgon, appeared to
argue as much: “It ultimately is in Israel’s interest to have a
transparent and effective Palestinian Authority because when you have
that, it will bring greater stability to the West Bank and to the region
more broadly,” he told the podcast.

Rasgon has almost a decade of experience covering Palestinian affairs
for The Times of Israel, The Jerusalem Post, The New York Times and The
Wall Street Journal.

Now a member of the New Yorker’s editorial staff, he recently co-wrote a
tour de force profile of one of Mahmoud Abbas’s closest aides, Hussein
al-Sheikh.

Newly appointed secretary general of the Executive Committee of the
Palestine Liberation Organization, PLO, Hussein al-Sheikh talks during
an interview with The Associate Press at his office, in the West Bank
city of Ramallah, Monday, June 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
The story is about Sheikh, but it’s also a larger one about a PA that
was born out of support from the masses but that, like Sheikh, has
gradually distanced itself from the people and their struggles.

We discussed what can be learned from Sheikh’s career, what his and the
PA’s futures look like, as well as Israel’s role in it all.

So this week, we ask journalist Adam Rasgon, what matters now?

The following podcast interview has been very lightly edited.

The Times of Israel: Adam, thank you so much for coming on for what is
somewhat of a homecoming for you at ToI.

Adam Rasgon: Thank you, Jacob. It’s great to be with you.

You and fellow former ToI Palestinian affairs correspondent Aaron
Boxerman recently published this incredibly eye-opening profile in
Foreign Policy magazine of senior Palestinian Authority Minister Hussain
al-Sheikh for which you interviewed 75 Palestinian, Israeli and
international officials over a span of nine months. You also have years
of experience covering Palestinian affairs, which makes you a perfect
person to ask, what matters now in this arena?

The future of the Palestinian Authority. That is why my colleague and I
chose to profile Hussein al-Sheikh, who is a contender in the race to
succeed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and who is also an
extremely influential figure within the Palestinian political system.

You talk about the future, but what about the present? Where are we in
this current moment of Palestinian politics?

The Palestinian Authority arguably is at its lowest point ever and is
facing a legitimacy crisis. The PA was established 30 years ago, and its
reason for being was to bring the Palestinians closer to freedom,
independence and statehood. But in many ways, it’s long outlived its
reason for being. The senior leadership of the Palestinian Authority is
standing and trying to keep the crumbling tower of the PA from falling,
but they’re holding it up while Israel’s occupation is being reinforced
and democratic freedoms within the Palestinian sphere are being eroded.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, right, casts his ballot
during voting for local elections in the West Bank town of Ramallah on
Dec. 15, 2005. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
Why in this current moment of erosion did you feel that it was important
to focus on Hussein al-Sheikh?

Many people thought we were trying to suggest that Sheikh will be the
next leader of the Palestinian Authority, but we weren’t particularly
interested in that at all. What we were trying to say is that Sheikh’s
life is a representation of the last 30 years of Palestinian history. It
traces the ever-widening gap between the public and the Palestinian
leadership.

Sheikh is someone who started out as a leather jacket-wearing street
activist and who now is at the top of Palestinian officialdom, going
around the world meeting with ministers and dignitaries in foreign
capitals, driving a Mercedes Benz around Ramallah, and is one of the
most influential figures in Palestinian decision making.

What does that distance you mentioned look like? How has it manifested
itself?

Sheikh grew up in Ramallah, and his father was a wholesale food trader.
He spent 11 years in [Israeli] prison. He was involved in a Fatah cell
that carried out violence against Israel, though he himself said he
wasn’t directly involved in acts of violence. He learned Hebrew in
prison and studied Israel. When the Palestinian Authority was
established in the early 90s, he was trying to find his position in the
new order and ended up joining the security forces.

His breakthrough moment was when he became the minister of civil
affairs. The [PA] Civil Affairs Ministry has a technocratic name, but
it’s a ministry that deals with Israel, directly handles all the issues
with Israel related to permits, approvals for construction in parts of
the West Bank that are under Israel’s control, etc. Sheikh himself also
deals with Israel on just about any issue — whether it’s tensions in
Jenin, or clashes in Nablus, or a deal to provide 3G or 4G cellular
services. He’s the main point of contact.

Palestinian women cross the Qalandiya checkpoint, outside of the West
Bank city of Ramallah, on April 15, 2022. (Flash90)
You quote one US official in your story who called Sheikh the “Abbas
whisperer.” How did he get so close to the PA president?

Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) has always kept the officials within the
Palestinian political system who are close to Israel close to himself.
Sheikh is someone who in many ways is a yes-man. Abu Mazen over the
years has become increasingly intolerant of criticism. He doesn’t
welcome advisers into his circle who challenge his views. Sheikh is
someone who reiterates and reinforces the views of his boss. One
Palestinian official we spoke to Nasser al-Kidwa said that Sheikh has a
particular ability to “kiss ass, lie, brown-nose, and bullshit.” It’s
this yes-man mentality that I think brought him closer to his boss, but
also his ability to cultivate strong relations with Israel and to show
the president that he’s capable of working with Israel on different
issues [and capable of] maintaining those relationships during tense
moments over the years.

I recall in your piece how it wasn’t just Abbas who liked him, but the
Israelis really liked him and even vouched for him amid all sorts of
allegations of corruption and even sexual harassment. Why was that?

When you talk to Israeli security officials, many of them are very
positive about Sheikh. He’s seen as someone who’s a pragmatist you can
work with. This is in contrast to other Palestinian officials like PA
Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh who foreign diplomats say would spend
the first 40 minutes of meetings lecturing them about history and
international law, leaving only five minutes to discuss practical
things. With Sheikh you go in the room, and in 15 minutes, you’ve
already achieved three deals — one to open a road in Jenin, a second to
deal with an electrical substation and a third to solve issues related
to the cellular networks in the West Bank. Sheikh is seen by Israeli
security officials as someone who’s not going to press them too hard on
the larger political issues. Of course, he’s going to state that he
wants a two-state solution and that he wants to achieve Palestinian
independence, but he’s more focused on those incremental issues, which
Israelis prefer.

He’s clearly a pragmatist, but what about some of the allegations of
corruption that he faced?

His ministry is in charge of permits, and these are permits related to
access to Israel — whether you’re a worker and just want to go work on a
construction project somewhere in Israel, but also permits for business
people who want to be able to drive their car into Israel to hold
meetings with business people in Tel Aviv or who want to use Ben Gurion
Airport, or permits to import certain products and materials. The
allegations that we had heard throughout the course of our reporting are
that officials in his ministry have been accepting favors and cash in
exchange for these permits under the table. One prominent businessman
told us that the ministry would grant permits to those who installed air
conditioning units in their office. The businessman recalled cases of
people paying $10,000 in exchange for permits. These were the main
allegations we were hearing over the course of our reporting.