More than a thousand days of war on Gaza have destroyed far more than cities, hospitals and refugee camps. They have also exposed the exhaustion of a political framework built more than three decades ago under the Oslo Accords.

As the Palestinian people endure perhaps the most dramatic moment in their history since the Nakba of 1948, their national institutions remain fragmented, outdated and increasingly incapable of reflecting the political diversity of Palestinian society and the forces leading the struggle against occupation.

The Palestinian Authority, originally conceived as a transitional administration on the path toward an independent Palestinian state, has gradually become an end in itself.

The Palestinian Authority, originally conceived as a transitional administration on the path toward an independent Palestinian state, has gradually become an end in itself.

Thirty years after Oslo, there is still no Palestinian state. Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank has accelerated, East Jerusalem continues to face de facto annexation, and Gaza has endured successive wars and a devastating blockade. A political process that was meant to deliver independence has instead evolved into the management of an ever more entrenched occupation.

Within this context, Mahmoud Abbas has become the principal symbol of institutional stagnation. President of the Palestinian Authority since 2005, he has remained in office without renewing his mandate through presidential elections.

Within this........

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