January 9 In History: The Election Of Mahmoud Abbas As President Of Palestine

Mahmoud Abbas (Photo: Commos Wikimedai)

JAKARTA - Today, 15 years ago, or January 9, 2005, Mahmoud Abbas was elected as the second President of Palestine. Abbas's position has been a long process. Because, being the leader of a country in conflict with Israel is not easy. However, Abbas did not give up. His work in leading Palestine is still fiery, at least to this day.

It is noted that Mahmoud Abbas or also known as Abu Mazen was born in Safed, Galille, Palestine in 1935. Launching Kompas.com, a number of sources said Abbas was born on March 26, but some also said Abbas was born on November 15.

Little Abbas also felt the atmosphere of war. During the Palestinian War in 1948, Abbas and his family fled to Syria. While enjoying a new life, Abbas continued his education which had been interrupted in Palestine. Abbas studied until graduating at the Faculty of Law, Damascus University.

After that, Abbas wanted to continue his education outside Syria. Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow was chosen as its new port for studying. Thanks to his perseverance, Abbas graduated with a Candidate of Sciences, or PhD equivalent.

At that time, his dissertation was related to the relationship between Nazism and Zionism. Because of the sensitive topic of discussion. Many parties then consider Abbas's dissertation as a conspiracy theory that refutes the Holocaust tragedy. But Abbas doesn't really care about this.

Get in touch with politics

The momentum of Abbas's move to Qatar in the 1950s was his first step to getting acquainted with the Palestinian political underground movement. Abbas briefly worked for the Qatar Civil Service as a personnel director. It was there that Abbas first met Yasser Arafat, who later founded the Fatah organization in Kuwait with five other people.

Fatah then became Abbas's initial gateway into politics. Because, Fatah will later become one of the important factions in the Palestinian government. Abbas's career also rose until he became a member of the Palestinian National Assembly in 1968. Because of this, Fatah became the spearhead of the Palestinian armed movement and later dominated the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

At PLO Abbas is different. As the others launched their movements with guns. Abbas is actually trying to establish contacts with Israeli peace groups. Abbas then took Fatah to initiate a dialogue with the Israelis. His efforts bore fruit. Informal talks between Palestinian representatives and Israeli leaders took place in 1977.

However, these initial talks did not bear much fruit. Still, it's a good place to start. Abbas is even more eager to find a path of peace between the two countries through diplomacy. One of the traces was when Abbas, through Dutch intermediaries, resumed secret negotiations with Israeli officials in 1989.

At the same time, dialogue has become the main strategy for Palestinian negotiations, such as during negotiations at the Madrid, Spain peace conference in 1991 and the meeting with Israel in Norway in 1993. Through meetings in Norway, Israel and Palestine have broadened mutual recognition. After that, Israel handed over government in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to the Palestinian authorities.

So President of Palestine

When Palestinian President Yasser Arafat died in 2004. The vacant position in the Palestinian administration opened Abbas the opportunity to be in the top government position. He was elected by acclamation as chairman of the PLO on 11 November 2004.

Abbas was then nominated by Fatah to be a candidate in the Palestinian presidential election held on January 9, 2005. He was elected after winning 62.3 percent of the vote.

"January 2005, held the election for the President of the Palestinian Authority. Hamas boycotted the election, which was won by Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of Fatah after Arafat, "wrote Dina Y. Sulaeman in Ahmadinejad's book on Palestine (2008).

After that, Abbas broke the predictions of many, that the power over Palestine was only corn. Unexpectedly, Abbas is still the President of Palestine to this day.