Born on March 26, 1935 (Safed, Palestine)

President of Palestine
Political activist

For over forty years, Palestinian politician Mahmoud Abbas has been the quiet, reasonable man behind the high theater of Palestinian politics. Unlike longtime Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) chairman Yasser Arafat (1929–2004; see entry), who provoked confrontation as he placed Palestinian political claims in the media spotlight, Abbas has preferred to work quietly behind the scenes. Yet Abbas took part in many of the key events in the history of the Palestinian people: he was a founding member of Fatah, the organization that leads the PLO; he led Palestinian negotiators in talks that led to the Oslo Accords of 1993, one of the most important milestones in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict; and he was briefly prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, the ruling body of the Palestinian...