Rawhi Fattouh

Infobox_President|name=روحي فتوح
Rawhi Fattuh
nationality=Palestinian
order=Interim-President of the Palestinian National Authority
term_start=November 11, 2004
term_end=January 15, 2005
predecessor=Yasser Arafat
successor=Mahmoud Abbas
birth_date=1949
birth_place=Barqa, Present-day Israel, north of Gaza Strip
dead=alive
death_date=
death_place=
spouse=
party=Fatah
vicepresident=

Rawhi Fattuh (روحي فتوح, also transliterated as Rauhi Fattouh) (born 1949) is the former Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council and was the interim President of the Palestinian Authority, following the death of Yasser Arafat on November 11, 2004 until January 15 2005. Under Palestinian law, he was to hold the post for 60 days until an election is held. The elections were held and won by Mahmoud Abbas, who was sworn in on January 15, 2005.

Biography

A member of Arafat's Fatah movement, Fattuh became the Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (i.e. parliament) on March 10, 2004. He was elected in 1996 as a representative of the town of Rafah (in the Gaza Strip), where he was born and has lived for most of his life. He served as secretary to the council until November 2003, when he became the Minister of Agriculture in the government of Ahmed Qureia.

In March 2004, Fatah nominated him as its candidate for the post of speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, with 34 Fatah delegates voting in favour and 10 against. Fattuh is generally considered a moderate. He supported Ahmed Qureia, his predecessor as Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council and former Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, as Arafat's permanent replacement. Qureia is considered to have played an instrumental role in the negotiation of the Oslo Accords.

Fattuh did not run in the 2006 legislative election and is no longer a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council.

Contraband Phones Incident

In March 2008, Fattouh was caught by Israeli inspectors at the Alenby Bridge border crossing with 3,000 contraband cell phones in his car. Consequently, Fattouh had been suspended from his duties as aide to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, at his own request. [ [http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2008/03/20/afx4798848.html Abbas aide caught with contraband phones] , "Forbes", March 20, 2008.]

References