The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is paving the way for a generational change. According to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA, the PLO's Executive Committee has appointed the 64-year-old Hussein al-Sheikh as deputy to the 89-year-old Palestinian president and head of the PLO, Mahmoud Abbas.

The committee also appointed al-Sheikh as deputy chairman of the PLO, which is represented by the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the occupied West Bank.

The position of vice president was only created last week, after the PLO leadership approved a proposal enabling, for example, al-Sheikh to succeed Abbas as Palestinian president in the event of the latter's death or incapacity.

However, this succession is not guaranteed, as other candidates can also run for the office.

"To succeed him as PLO leader, the PLO Executive Committee would have to elect a new chairman," Simon Engelkes, head of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) office in Ramallah, the de facto administrative capital of the occupied West Bank, told DW.

Hussein al-Sheikh is as a close confidant of the current leader Abbas who also heads the Palestinian Authority, or PA. He joined Fatah, the PLO's largest political faction, at an early age. As a young man, he spent 11 years in Israeli prisons and after he was released he continued to be a member of Fatah, rising up in the ranks. In 2007, Abbas appointed him as director of the Civil Administration of the Palestinian Authority. He is responsible for issuing the sought-after travel permits that allow Palestinians to enter Israel for work and medical treatment.

In this role, al-Sheikh has established close ties to the Israeli security........

© Deutsche Welle