Fatah's Changing of the Guard

The Sixth Fatah General Conference ended in Bethlehem this week with the fundamental reshaping of the movement's key decision-making body.

As the final tallies came in it was revealed that 14 of 18 elected seats on the Central Committee were won by non-incumbents. Only four of 10 Old Guard candidates won re-election to the party's top institution, effectively drawing a line under the status quo ante within the movement, which has appeared on the verge of collapse in recent years under the weight of disparate tendencies and governance failures.

These centripetal forces were a key factor in the movement's disastrous showing in the 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council elections, won by Hamas, in no small part, through the standing of competing Fatah candidates in many constituencies.

It is important to note that the rise of the so-called Young Guard, while generational in character, does not bring too many fresh faces into the leadership ranks. However, it does promote those whose role in the movement and Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership has been artificially suppressed by the failure of the established elite to share power.

Asked why there was animosity towards candidates standing for re-election, Fafo research institute's Akram Atallah told ISN Security Watch: "Some people consider them corrupted."

The election of a new heterogeneous Central Committee constitutes an important moment in the democratization of Fatah. The conference was also a first step in addressing wider popular grievances with Fatah's failure to secure an end to the Israeli occupation; its poor governance record; and alleged corruption.

"Some of the members of the new generation are subscribing to the political platform of the Old Guards. So there is a sense of generational change but it is not deep enough to reflect itself on the political domain," political scientist Basem Ezbidi, from Bir Zeit University, told ISN Security Watch.

Resistance

The new members of the Central Committee are far from unanimous in their approach to Israel, but most have at some point engaged in peace negotiations or expressed positive sentiments thereon.

Ezbidi explained that three factions or tendencies are identifiable in the new committee. The first "preaches negotiations with Israel." The second articulates "a mixture between resistance and political means," and the third puts "emphasis on the notion of resistance," he said.

The right to resistance was not really in question at the conference but how this is perceived pragmatically. Fatah's standing within the Palestinian community has fallen dramatically over the last decade through the failures of the peace process and its outflanking by Hamas on the issue.

The Islamic movement has won significant popular support, beyond the bounds of its natural constituency of religious conservatives, through its perceived leadership of the armed struggle and firm, unitary stance on a wide range of issues at a time when Fatah was perceived to be floundering and, by many Palestinians, as in league with Israel and the US.

Ultimately, there will be little real change in the PA's approach to the peace process, which is not under the direct control of Fatah but of the Muqata (presidency), represented by the virtually synonymous PLO.

Referring again to the different tendencies within the newly elected Central Committee, Ezbidi said: "None of these factions has the necessary power in order to dominate and to impose its perspective."

Fatah and Hamas

Hamas-affiliated media organs have largely sought to downplay the Fatah conference - a sign in itself of the event's relative success.

The movement has instead sought to draw attention to the death in prison of Fadi Hamadneh. external pageHamas claimscall_made he is its fifth member to be killed in PA prisons.

Both factions continue their reportedly brutal security crackdowns on the other, poisoning relations as reconciliation talks founder.

The Fatah Central Committee vote completed the political comeback of former Gaza strongman Mohammad Dahlan. He is loathed by Hamas in Gaza, which accuses his now defunct Preventive Security Force of torture and other rights violations against its members.

Here, delegates appear to have put their weight behind a figure seen as capable of taking on Hamas in the West Bank and whose election would provide symbolic succor to embattled Fatah supporters in Gaza, who were prevented by Hamas from attending the conference.
 
Referring to Dahlan, Atallah said: "He succeeded [in winning election] but so did others who have a moderate opinion […] So I don't think that the power will be with people who want to be very strict regarding talks and reconciliation with Hamas."

Marwan Barghouti and Jibril Rajoub are among the new committee members who are backing reconciliation with Hamas.

Barghouti, who is serving a life sentence in an Israeli jail, was a key player in the formulation of the 2006 Prisoners' Reconciliation Document, signed by representatives of all major factions. While reiterating the right to resist the Israeli occupation, the document also implicitly signals recognition of Israel through proposing the establishment of a Palestinian state within the pre-1967 borders.

"At this point it is not clear which direction the movement [Fatah] is going to go, but what is certain is that the negotiations with Hamas will not move ahead any time soon," Ezbidi said.

Prospects

It remains to be seen whether the sweeping away of much of the political power of the Old Guard in fact presages a genuine shift in relations between the established PA leadership and Fatah.

Abbas and his supporters will continue to hold effective power through control of nascent state organs, rebuilt PA security services and the presidency.

Fatah's US and Israeli-backed seizure of power in the West Bank, while understandable in light of Hamas' virtual declaration of civil war in Gaza, was profoundly damaging to nascent PA governance structures.

This is important, as it has undermined the gradual development of democratic norms; the related establishment of a balance of powers between the Muqata and parliament; and prospects for the necessary separation of party and polity.

To Ezbidi, if Fatah, "want to preserve their integrity, their standing and their strength on the ground they should make it very clear that it is a national liberation movement and is separated and isolated from the Palestinian Authority."

"I doubt very much that this will happen because the relationship between Fatah and the Palestinian Authority is so organic and close that it is almost impossible to make any real separation between both bodies," he concluded.