Jibril Rajoub Re-elected as Fatah Central Committee Secretary

The Fatah Central Committee has unanimously re-elected 73-year-old Jibril Rajoub as its secretary. The decision was made during a leadership meeting in Ramallah on September 6. Rajoub, who also heads the Palestinian Football Association, has frequently called for international sports organizations to impose sanctions on Israel. He was previously re-elected to the Fatah Central Committee in May 2026, securing 1,631 votes and ranking third in the number of votes received.

Rajoub, born in 1953 near Hebron, joined the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1967. He was imprisoned for 17 years starting in 1968 for an armed attack on Israeli soldiers, during which time he learned Hebrew and English. Released in 1985, he was later exiled to Lebanon in 1988 before moving to Tunisia, where Yasser Arafat appointed him "advisor on the intifada" and gave him a significant role within Fatah.

Returning to the Palestinian territories in 1994 under an agreement with Israel, Rajoub experienced a period of political fluctuation. He was expelled from the Central Committee by Arafat in 1997 for attempting to "usurp power" but was later brought back into Arafat's inner circle in 1999 as head of "preventive security" in the West Bank. He was dismissed from this post in February 2002 for "disobedience" after refusing to prevent a Hamas and Islamic Jihad storming of a prison in Hebron. In April 2002, following an attack on his home, he reportedly handed over approximately 50 Palestinian militants to Israeli intelligence.

Further shifts in his career included Arafat's offer of the "governor of Jenin" post in mid-2002, which did not materialize, and a declined offer to join the ministry of security in May 2003. In August 2003, Arafat appointed him as his security advisor. Rajoub's wife is an Israeli citizen, and their children hold Israeli citizenship and rights.

After Arafat's death and the election of Mahmoud Abbas as the new "chairman," Rajoub resigned as security advisor in January 2005, though Abbas did not accept his resignation, and he continued in the role for some time. Since 2006, Rajoub has led the Palestinian Olympic Committee and the Palestinian Football Association, serving as an advisor to the PA head on sports and youth affairs, and is considered the head of the PA's scout organization. He has held the position of Fatah Central Committee secretary for an extended period.