On April 26, a group of unelected Palestinian Authority (PA) officials approved the appointment of Hussein al-Sheikh as “Deputy Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Vice President of the [non-existent] State of Palestine.”
PA President Mahmoud Abbas, who also serves as chairman of the PLO Executive Committee, had nominated the 64-year-old al-Sheikh for this position in accordance with a decision by the Palestinian Central Council, a body dominated by Abbas loyalists, to create the position of “Deputy Chairman of the PLO Executive Committee and Vice President of the State of Palestine.”
