GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas took two decisions that caught his opponents by surprise. On April 3, he issued a presidential decree, announcing the formation of a constitutional court, which some see as a prelude to prevent Hamas from taking over the presidential seat in case of his absence; Hamas leader and Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) Abdel Aziz Dweik is authorized to handle the tasks of the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) president according to the Palestinian Basic Law in case of the president’s death, resignation or incompetence.

On April 11, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) announced that Abbas has suspended the front’s financial allocations disbursed by the Palestinian National Fund, which acts as a Ministry of Finance at the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). Within a short period, the decision was also applied to the other leftist opponent: the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP).

The amount allocated to each front is estimated at $80,000 per month and is disbursed for meeting various expenses and salaries. Similar amounts have been spent since the 1970s for all national forces at the PLO so that they would not pledge allegiance to foreign parties that might support them, according to a leader in the leftist local party who spoke to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity.

Talal Okal, political journalist at Palestinian newspaper Al-Ayyam, considered the decisions to form a Constitutional Court and to suspend the financial allocations a reflection of an individual system of rule. He told Al-Monitor, “Tyranny has become the political rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”