The Successions of Yasir Arafat

This article reviews the possible candidates to fill the key positions held by Yasir Arafat -- chairmanship of the PLO Executive Committee, leadership of Fatah, and the presidencies of the State of Palestine and of the Palestinian Authority on the basis of the legal provisions governing the successions in question. In the process, it sheds light on the internal workings of various bodies and sets the stage for the power struggles that may soon be underway.

Jean-François Legrain is a researcher at France's Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS-Maison de l'Orient) in Lyon, France. His most recent book is Les Palestines du quotidien: Les élections de l'autonomie, janvier 1996 (Beirut: CERMOC, 1999). An earlier and longer version of this article was published in the French quarterly Maghreb-Machrek, no. 161 (April-June 1998).