Farouq Al-Qaddoumi: Fatah co-founder and opponent of Oslo Accords dies at 93 in Jordan

A co-founder of the Palestinian movement Fatah who strongly opposed the Oslo Accords with Israel has died at the age of 93 in Jordan.

Farouq Al-Qaddoumi, known also as Abu Al-Lutf, passed away in Amman on Thursday and was mourned by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, The New Arab's Arabic sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported.

He had long suffered from illness, his family said.

"I mourn a brother, friend, and comrade in the struggle and tireless work for Palestine which with his absence loses one of its loyal, faithful men of struggle who gave so much to serve Palestine, its cause, and its people," Abbas said.

Abbas also belongs to Fatah, which dominates the Palestinian Authority (PA) which exercises limited control in some parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Fatah said in a statement that the group had "lost a great national figure and a struggler who spent his life defending our people and their national cause and legitimate rights to return, self-determination, freedom, and independence".

Hamas, which rules Gaza and is often at odds with Fatah, expressed condolences and sympathy to the Palestinian people and Qaddoumi's family.

It called him a "model of sticking by revolutionary principles" and a "strong voice in confronting all attempts to compromise and waive the rights of the Palestinian people".

It said he rejected "all projects of settlement [i.e. compromise] and liquidation, with the infamous Oslo Accord foremost among them", adding that he had "warned early on about its dangers to the just Palestinian cause".

The Oslo Accords, two agreements signed with Israel in the 1990s, led to the establishment of the PA but are viewed as having further entrenched Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory.

The deals were supposed to be temporary, and it was hoped they would result in the creation of an independent Palestinian state but Israel has made this less likely with its continued settlement activity in the West Bank.

Qaddoumi was born in 1931 in Nablus in the northern West Bank – before the 1948 mass ethnic cleansing of Palestinians known as the Nakba which accompanied the creation of Israel.

He became a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1969, but was pushed out in 2018.

The PLO is an umbrella group of Palestinian factions, including Fatah but not Hamas. When the PLO leadership returned to Palestine after the Oslo Accords, Qaddoumi refused to go and remained in Tunisia.

In 2004, a dispute arose between him and Abbas after the death of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat regarding the succession to the late leader as head of the Fatah movement.

Qaddoumi was also known as a strong opponent of the conflict between Fatah and Hamas, which he believed could lead to a wider conflict between different Palestinian factions.