Yasser Abed Rabbo

Born in Jaffa in 1944, Abed Rabbo became a Palestinian refugee as a result of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.{{cite book

|editor=Cheryl A. Rubenberg|title=Encyclopedia of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict|year=2010|publisher=Lynne Rienner Publishers|page=3

|location=Boulder, CO; London|url=https://doi.org/10.1515/9781588269621|isbn=978-1-58826-686-6|doi=10.1515/9781588269621|editor-link=Cheryl Rubenberg}}{{cite book|title=Who's Who in the Arab World 2007-2008|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NHCQBAFMwawC&pg=PA20

|year=2011|location=Beirut|publisher=Publitec|isbn=978-3-11-093004-7|page=20}} He later attended the American University in Cairo where he graduated with an MA in economics and political science.[http://www.jmcc.org/politics/pna/newpagov03.htm "Palestinian National Authority: The PA Ministerial Cabinet List: April 2003 – October 2003"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031215210945/http://www.jmcc.org/politics/pna/newpagov03.htm |date=15 December 2003}}. Jerusalem Media and Communications Center. Archived 27 September 2007.

Yasser Abed Rabbo started his political career in the Arab Nationalist Movement (ANM), a pan-Arabist organization. When the Palestinian branch of the ANM evolved in 1967 into the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), he became one of its leaders. In 1968, a leftist faction of the PFLP led by Nayef Hawatmeh split from the movement and formed the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP). Abed Rabbo became a member of the DFLP's politburo and was the organization's second most influential figure, after Hawatmeh. He became the most senior member of the DFLP to serve on the Palestine Liberation Organization's executive councils.[https://books.google.com/books?id=GkbzYoZtaJMC&pg=PA6 "Abd Rabbo, Yasir"], pp. 6–7. Michael R. Fischbach, Encyclopedia of the Palestinians. Infobase Publishing, 2005

Between 1977 and 1994, Abed Rabbo served as the head of the PLO's Information Department. During the 1980s, Abed Rabbo became closely allied with PLO chairman Yasser Arafat and supported his attempts to negotiate a two-state solution. Arafat appointed him the PLO's representative in the 1988–1990 talks with the United States in Tunis. By then, relations between Abed Rabbo and Hawatmeh deteriorated. The two disagreed about Abed Rabbo's participation in Arafat's diplomacy regarding the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the extent of the DFLP's political activities in Jordan, where Hawatmeh was based. Violent clashes between their supporters and Abed formed a separate faction of the DFLP in 1991, although he continued to use the DFLP's name. In 1991, he was a member of the Madrid Peace Delegation.

In 1993, Abed Rabbo renamed his faction the Palestinian Democratic Union (known by the acronym "FIDA"),[https://web.archive.org/web/20070731155826/http://www.fida.ps/english/internal/internal01.html Introduction]. Palestinian Democratic Union. Archived on 31 July 2007 leaving the Marxist–Leninist platform of the DFLP. Abed Rabbo became FIDA's representative on the PLO Executive Committee. Rabbo cautiously supported the 1993 Oslo Accords) between the PLO and Israel.

File:Yasser-arafat-1999-3.jpg and cabinet minister Nabil Shaath in a meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, 1999|left|225x225px]]

In 1994, he entered the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories to assume his position in the newly formed Palestinian National Authority. Representing FIDA, he served as the Culture and Arts Minister in Arafat's cabinet between 1994 and 2004. He headed the Palestinian negotiating team in final status peace talks with the Israelis between September 1999 and May 2000, and later took part in the Camp David II Summit in July 2000. Abed Rabbo participated in the 2001 Taba Summit.

File:Barack Obama meets with Mahmoud Abbas in the Oval Office 2009-05-28 2.jpg

Abed Rabbo served as Minister in several Palestinian Authority cabinets from May 1994 until October 2004. In 2002, he resigned from FIDA after internal disputes. Women's rights activist Zahira Kamal had been chosen in an internal election to replace him as minister in the government of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), but Abed Rabbo refused to step down, and instead left the party. He was able to remain in the cabinet as an independent, with Arafat's backing, but was replaced in FIDA by Saleh Ra'fat, its current Secretary-General.{{citation needed|date=November 2015}}

He also presented several unofficial peace initiatives, widely believed to have had Arafat's blessing, such as the 2003 Geneva Accord.{{cite book|last=Caridi|first=Paola|year=2012|pages=342|title=Hamas: From Resistance to Government|publisher=Seven Stories Press|isbn=978-1-60980-382-7 }} The latter, which he negotiated with Yossi Beilin, was condemned by both the Israelis and Palestinians, the latter of whom particularly condemned Abed Rabbo's alleged relinquishment of the Palestinian refugees' right of return. These initiatives, coupled with his public condemnations of suicide bombing attacks during the Second Intifada, strengthened Abed Rabbo's image as a pro-peace moderate, and he is often presented as a Palestinian "dove".

File:The new Palestinian unity government sworn in Ramallah.jpg

After the death of Arafat in 2004, Abed Rabbo was removed from the post of minister in the PNA government by Arafat's successor, Mahmoud Abbas. Pending new elections, he remains on the PLO Executive Committee. As the second most senior member of PLO Executive Committee, Abed Rabbo has been critical of Abbas's governance.

On 30 June 2015, Abed Rabbo was dismissed as Secretary-General of the Executive Committee by Abbas. According to Arab sources, Abbas accused Abed Rabbo of conspiring with Mohammed Dahlan to oust Abbas in a coup. Anonymous Palestinian officials claimed the two had long been at odds over budget allocations and that Abbas viewed Abed Rabbo as a threat to his presidency with financial support from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).{{cite news|title=Abbas fires deputy Abed Rabbo in PLO power struggle |url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/abbas-fires-deputy-abed-rabbo-in-plo-power-struggle/|agency=Associated Press|work=Times of Israel |date=2015-07-01}} According to Nathan Thrall of the International Crisis Group, Abbas was less worried about a coup by Abed Rabbo, but was threatened by Abed Rabbo's perceived alliance with Abbas's rivals Dahlan and former prime minister Salam Fayyad. Abed Rabbo denied links with Dahlan, dismissing rumors of a conspiracy as "hallucinations". He also insists that he was not dismissed from the Executive Committee body. Abed Rabbo was replaced by senior Abbas aide Saeb Erakat.{{cite news |last1=Magid |first1=Aaron|title=Dismissed PLO leader denies Dahlan coup plot|url=http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/07/palestine-plo-yasser-abed-rabbo-mahmoud-abbas.html#|work=Al-Monitor|date=2015-07-24}}

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• {{cite book|last=Fischbach|first=Michael R.|editor=Phillip Mattar|editor-link=Philip Mattar |title=Encyclopedia of the Palestinians |chapter=Abd Rabbo, Yasir|date=2005|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=9780816069866|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GkbzYoZtaJMC&pg=PA344}}

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Category:1944 births

Category:Living people

Category:People from Jaffa

Category:Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine members

Category:Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine politicians

Category:Palestine Liberation Organization members

Category:Government ministers of the Palestinian National Authority

Category:Third Way (Palestinian political party) politicians

Category:Members of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization

Category:Arab people in Mandatory Palestine