The Executive Committee (PLO EC) (Arabic: اللجنة التنفيذية لمنظمة التحرير الفلسطينية) is the highest executive body of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and the government of the State of Palestine. It has been chaired by Mahmoud Abbas since November 2004.
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The EC represents the organization internationally. It represents the Palestinian people, supervises the various PLO bodies, executes the policies and decisions set out by the PNC, and handles the PLO’s financial issues. It meets abroad and in the Palestinian territories.
The Executive Committee members hold special areas of responsibility, such as military matters, foreign affairs, finance and social affairs, making their role similar to that of ministers in a national government.
Organization
The Executive Committee has 18 members, elected by the Palestinian National Council (PNC), often as representatives of the PLO member factions. As of 2015, the EC was headed by Mahmud Abbas, who succeeded Yasser Arafat. The EC appointed Abbas Chairman within hours after Arafat's death in 2004. The quorum for legitimate decisions is twelve, according to the Constitution of the PLO.
Members
On 27 August 2009, the PNC elected six new members to the EC, to replace members who had died (including Yasser Arafat) since the last plenary PNC meeting in 1996. The vote took place in an extraordinary meeting, due to lack of the PNC quorum. Among the six elected were Ahmad Qurei and Hanan Ashrawi. Some Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, boycotted the meeting. They called the PLO illegal and illegitimate, because they and other Palestinian factions were not represented in the organization, and was a violation of the Cairo and Mecca agreements and the national reconciliation document, which envisioned simultaneous elections for the Palestinian National Council and the Palestinian Authority.
Earlier elected members
Earlier elected members of the Executive Committee are:
- Mahmoud Abbas (Fatah)
- Farouk Kaddoumi (Fatah)
- Mohammed Zuhdi al-Nashashibi
- Yasser Abed Rabbo
- Abdel Rahim Mallouh
- Taysir Khalid (Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine) until 1993
- Ali Ishaq
- Mahmoud Ismail (Arab Liberation Front)
- As'ad Abdel Rahman
- Ghassan Shakaa (Mayor of Nablus)
- Zakaria al-Agha (Fatah)
- Riya al-Khudri
- Saeb Erekat
- Ahmed Majdalani
- Salih Raafat
- Ziad Amr
- Ahmad Qurei
- Hanna Amira
- Dr. Hanan Ashrawi