Rawhi Fattuh (, also transliterated as Rauhi Fattouh; born 23 August 1949) is the current

Chairman The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the gro ...

Palestinian Legislative Council The Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of the Palestinian National Authority, Palestinian Authority, elected by the Palestinians, Palestinian residents of the Palestinian territories of the Wes ...

, having held the position since February 2020. He had previously held the same position in 2004, and for that reason he became the interim President of the Palestinian Authority, following the death of

Yasser Arafat Yasser Arafat (4 or 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), also popularly known by his Kunya (Arabic), kunya Abu Ammar, was a Palestinian political leader. He was chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969 to 2004, Presid ...

on 11 November 2004, until 15 January 2005. Under Palestinian law, he held the Presidency only until elections were held. The

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...

were held and won by

Mahmoud Abbas Mahmoud Abbas (; born 15 November 1935), also known by the Kunya (Arabic), kunya Abu Mazen (, ), is a Palestinian politician who has been serving as the second president of Palestine and the President of the Palestinian National Authority, P ...

, who was sworn in on 15 January 2005.Bio entry appears in the PASSIA (Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs) website, listed as FATTOUH, RAWHI Ahmed Mohammed (1949-) under "Personalities" at PASSIA's entry is referenced by other online biographical sources. Fattuh was again elected to the

Central Committee of Fatah The Fatah Central Committee is the highest decision-making body of the Palestinian organization and political party, Fatah. History The first Fatah Central Committee was formed in February 1963, consisting of ten members, including Yasser Arafa ...

in December 2016.

Biography

Fattuh was elected in 1996 as a representative to the

of the town of

Rafah Rafah ( ) is a city in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestine, and the capital of the Rafah Governorate. It is located south-west of Gaza City. In 2017, Rafah had a population of 171,889. Due to the Gaza war, about 1.4 million people from Gaza C ...

(in the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...

), where he was born and has lived for most of his life. He served as secretary to the PLC until October 2003, when he became the minister of agriculture in the government of

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Ahmed Qureia. In July 2004, Fatah nominated Fattuh as its candidate for

Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council The Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council is the chairman of the Palestinian Legislative Council of the Palestinian Authority. As Chairman, the Speaker acts as interim President of the Palestinian National Authority if the latter is u ...

, with 34 Fatah delegates voting in favour and 10 against. In November 2004, Fattuh supported Ahmed Qurei, his predecessor as speaker and former prime minister, to succeed Arafat as president. Fattuh was sworn in as interim

President of the Palestinian National Authority The president of the Palestinian National Authority () is the highest-ranking political position (equivalent to head of state) in the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). From 2003 to 2013, the president appointed the prime minister of the Pa ...

on 11 November 2004 after the death of Arafat. After taking the oath, Fattuh praised Arafat as a martyr of the Palestinian people and promised to faithfully follow Arafat's policies. Fattuh did not run in the 2006 legislative election and is no longer a member of the PLC. In 2022, Fattouh chaired the 18-member Fatah-dominated

PLO Executive Committee The Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO EC; ) is the highest executive body of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and acts as the Palestinian government, government of the State of Palestine.

. Fattouh, a member of the PNC's founding generation, was considered by analysts to be dull and lacking any political influence to actually rule. Israel revoked the entry permits to Israel for Fattouh and two other senior Palestinian officials in January 2023 after they visited Karim Younis, who was freed from prison after being convicted of murdering an Israeli soldier in 1980. On 30 November 2024, Fattouh was nominated by Palestinian Authority president

to assume the presidency in the event of his incapacity.

Views

At an event in Algeria in 2023, Fattuh claimed that Arabs had inhabited

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

for over 1.5 million years. He also claimed that the first human civilizations appeared in

Mount Carmel Mount Carmel (; ), also known in Arabic as Mount Mar Elias (; ), is a coastal mountain range in northern Israel stretching from the Mediterranean Sea towards the southeast. The range is a UNESCO biosphere reserve. A number of towns are situat ...

, furthermore that the Kebaran "engineering civilization" appeared in the Kebara Cave, 60,000 years ago. Both of those claims contradicts current scienctific understanding. The oldest known

human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...

s came much later; the

Kebaran culture The Kebaran culture, also known as the 'Early Near East Epipalaeolithic', is an archaeological culture of the Eastern Mediterranean dating to c. 23,000 to 15,000 Before Present (BP). Its type site is Kebara Cave, south of Haifa. The Kebaran was ...

was a hunter gatherer culture from about 30,000 years later.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fattouh, Rawhi 1949 births Living people Presidents of the Palestinian National Authority Speakers of the Palestinian Legislative Council Central Committee of Fatah members 21st-century Palestinian politicians