Mahmoud Abbas

On August 18, 2008, it was announced by Israel that they would release 199 Palestinian inmates as a gesture of goodwill to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.The Guardian: Israel to Free Longest Term Palestinian Prisoners (August 19, 2008)

Mahmoud Abbas took office as President of the Palestinian National Authority on January 15, 2005. He is the current leader of Fatah and served as the first Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority from March, 2003, until his resignation on September 6, 2003. Since the death of Yasser Arafat on November 11, 2004, he has served as the chairman of the PLO. Abbas has been a longtime supporter of negotiations on and a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Because of his willingness to negotiate, his denouncement of violence, and his relative openness to both Israel and the United States, Abbas is widely considered a moderate leader for Palestine. Since his party lost their majority status in 2006, he has tried, without success to from a coalition government with Hamas as a means of ending the Fatah-Hamas Conflict.

• 1935, March 26: Born in Safed (now in Israel)

• 1948: Declaration of the state of Israel. Abbas flees and settles in Syria

• 1957: One of the founding members of al-Fatah

• 1970's: Creates contact with socialist and pacifist Jewish groups

• 1993: Central participant in the Oslo Agreement

• 2003 May 19: Appointed Palestine's first prime minister by president Yassir Arafat

• 2003: September 3: Resigns as prime minister

• 2004 November 11: Elected chairman of PLO

• 2005: January 9: Elected president of Palestine.

• 2006: November 12: Replaces Farouk Kaddoumi as head of Al-Fatah.