Initially, the five-year interim agreement called for the election of a Palestinian Legislative Council and an executive leader whom the Israelis wanted to call a “chairman,” spurning the word “president.” Because Arabic makes no distinction between chairman and president, the Israelis accepted use of the Arabic word rayyes in the official English text.
最初，5年过渡协议要求选举出一个巴勒斯坦立法委员会以及一位执行领导人，而以色列人希望将此人称之为“主席”而不是“总统”。但由于阿拉伯语里“主席”和“总统”不分，最后以色列人同意在正式英文文本中使用“rayyes”这个阿拉伯词汇来表示这个领导人的身份。