Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas Names National Council Chairman Rawhi Fattouh As Interim Successor In Case Presidency Post Becomes Vacant; Fattouh In May 2023: Palestine In Its Entirety Belongs To The Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims – And No One Else; Our Forefathers Inhabited This Land For Over 1.5 Million Years

On November 27, 2024, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas named Palestinian National Council Chairman Rawhi Fatthouh as his interim successor in the event that the post becomes vacant.[1] Fattouh is also the former speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, and has served as the interim head of the Palestinian Authority following the death of Yasser Arafat in 2004.

In a May 22, 2023 Nakba Day event in Algeria, Fattouch said that the Palestinians have been living in Palestine for more than 1.5 million years, and spoke about a neanderthal civilization that lived on Mount Carmel 60,000 years ago. In response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statement that the Jews have been in Jerusalem for 3,000 years, Fattough said that the Palestinians' Jebusite "forefathers" had established Jerusalem in 5,000 BCE, and he emphasized that it belongs "exclusively to the Palestinians, the Arabs, and the Muslims." Fattouh's speech was aired on Palestine TV on May 26, 2023.

Click here or below to view the clip on MEMRI TV:

"Palestine In Its Entirety Belongs To Us, And To No One Else"

Rawhi Fattouh: "Palestine in its entirety belongs to us, and to no one else. We do not share it with anyone. Humans appeared in Palestine 1.5 million years ago. The first human civilization appeared in the ancient caves on Mount Carmel, in Palestine. The first Kebaran civilization and the first Kebaran engineering civilization appeared in the Kebara Cave 60,000 years ago. Our Jebusite forefathers built Palestine – and especially Jerusalem – in 5,000 BC.

"Yesterday, Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of the extreme right, fascist government of Israel held a meeting at the Al-Buraq [Western] Wall, in order to respond to Abu Mazen's [Mahmoud Abbas] speech at the General Assembly of the UN, on the 15th of this month, and in order to say: 'We have been here on this land for 3,000 years.' This is what Netanyahu says.

"We Have Been Here For More Than 1.5 Million Years; Jerusalem Was Built By Our Jebusite Forefathers And Belong Exclusively To The Palestinians, The Arabs, And The Muslims"

"We say that we have been here for more than 1.5 million years. Jerusalem was built by our Jebusite forefathers in 5,000 BC – so it is 7,000 years old – and it belongs exclusively to the Palestinians, the Arabs, and the Muslims."