35 Facts About Mohammed Dahlan

Mohammad Yusuf Dahlan is a Palestinian politician.

Mohammed Dahlan was controversially elected to the Central Committee of Fatah amid allegations of fraud.

Mohammed Dahlan was born in Khan Yunis Refugee Camp, Khan Yunis, Gaza Strip to a refugee family from Hamama, a Palestinian town depopulated in 1948.

Mohammed Dahlan was chosen to head the Preventive Security Force in Gaza after the signing of the Oslo Accords.

Mohammed Dahlan built up a force of 20,000 men, making him one of the most powerful Palestinian leaders, dealing regularly with the Central Intelligence Agency and Israeli intelligence officials.

Mohammed Dahlan's forces were accused of torturing Hamas detainees throughout the 1990s, allegations Dahlan denies.

Mohammed Dahlan repeatedly tried to campaign on a reform and anti-corruption ticket and tried to profile himself as an outspoken critic of Arafat, although many observers dispute his personal integrity.

In 2004, Mohammed Dahlan was assumed to have been behind week-long unrest in Gaza following the appointment of Arafat's nephew Moussa Arafat as head of Gaza police forces.

On January 26,2006, Mohammed Dahlan was narrowly elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council in the Palestinian legislative election of 2006 as a representative for Khan Yunis.

Mohammed Dahlan took a tough stance against Hamas, calling their election victory a disaster and threatening to 'haunt them from now till the end of their term' and to 'rough up and humiliate' Fatah supporters tempted to join the Hamas-led Palestinian government.

On January 7,2007, Mohammed Dahlan held the biggest-ever rally of Fatah supporters in the Gaza Strip, where he denounced Hamas as 'a bunch of murderers and thieves' and vowed that 'we will do everything, I repeat, everything, to protect Fatah activists'.

In March 2007, despite objections from Hamas, Mohammed Dahlan was appointed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to lead the newly re-established Palestinian National Security Council, overseeing all security forces in the Palestinian territories.

Mohammed Dahlan organised paramilitary units of several thousand fighters trained with American assistance in Arab countries, and lobbied Israel to allow Fatah forces in Gaza to receive large shipments of arms and ammunition to fight Hamas.

The Americans provided money and arms to Mohammed Dahlan, trained his men and ordered him to carry out a military coup against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

In July 2007, Mohammed Dahlan resigned from his post as national security adviser.

Mohammed Dahlan has been blamed by many in Fatah for the rapid collapse of their forces in Gaza in the face of a Hamas offensive that lasted less than a week.

Shortly after his forces were expelled from Gaza, Mohammed Dahlan re-established himself in the West Bank.

Representatives of Mohammed Dahlan pressured Mahmoud Abbas to fire and punish Al-Hassan, while masked gunmen opened fire on his home in Ramallah.

Al-Hassan accused Mohammed Dahlan of planning to murder him, a charge which Mohammed Dahlan denied.

Some Fatah officials said that the US and some European Union countries had made it clear they would like to see Mohammed Dahlan succeed Abbas as head of the PA.

In June 2011 Mohammed Dahlan was expelled from Fatah because of repeated claims by Mahmoud Abbas that he had murdered Arafat.

Mohammed Dahlan was convicted for defaming president Abbas and sentenced him to two years in prison, and a year later convicted of embezzlement which added three years to his sentence.

Mohammed Dahlan developed a close relationship with Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who became the de facto ruler of Abu Dhabi in 2014 and President of the United Arab Emirates in 2022.

Mohammed Dahlan assisted in organising some large UAE investments in the Balkans, and acquired Serbian citizenship.

In October 2018, Mohammed Dahlan was accused of cooperating with Abraham Golan, a Hungarian-Israeli veteran of the French Foreign Legion, to hire American ex-special forces mercenaries to assassinate Yemeni al-Islah politicians as part of the United Arab Emirate's role in the Yemeni Civil War.

In March 2023, Mohammed Dahlan argued that Israel had destroyed the option of a two-state solution, and Palestinians should now work toward a one-state solution for two peoples with equal rights.

Mohammed Dahlan suggested that after the war a two-year transitional technocratic government should be created for Gaza and the West Bank jointly.

Jibril Rajoub, with whom he cultivated a deep and personal rivalry, claimed in 2003 that everybody knew Mohammed Dahlan was an Israeli agent.

Mohammed Dahlan has been criticized for his good relationship with Arafat's long-time financial adviser Mohammad Rashid and Dahlan's own London-based business.

Mohammed Dahlan is alleged to have enriched himself through corruption; his personal wealth has been estimated at well over $120 million.

Mohammed Dahlan has faced criticism regarding his role in Gaza turmoil, especially in exchanging hostilities with rival security forces commander Ghazi al-Jabali.

Mohammed Dahlan was the target of a bounty offered by the Turkish government in January 2020, offering 4 million lira for information leading to his capture.

The Turkish government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses Mohammed Dahlan of being an agent of Israeli intelligence and a financial backer of the Gulen movement.

Dahlan was branded as a "traitor" in the street protests of West Bank and Gaza Strip, where demonstrators trampled and torched the portraits of Donald Trump, Mohammed bin Zayed, Benjamin Netanyahu and Dahlan.

Mohammed Dahlan is aligned with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.