Abbas intact as leader, but Fatah is split

The movement’s six-day congress ended yesterday with strengthened standing for its leader – but no new ideas or direction, and some bitterness over his exclusion of his rival, Mohammed Dahlan

JERUSALEM // The six-day Fatah congress that ended yesterday in Ramallah strengthened Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s position in the short term, but leaves the movement fractured and bereft of new ideas or direction, analysts say.

In the election to its central committee, Fatah failed to inject much new blood or diversity into its leadership, delivering merely a team of Abbas supporters.

“Abbas after this conference is stronger than before,” said Ghassan Khatib, a former Palestinian Authority minister and now vice president of the West Bank’s Bir Zeit University.

“He succeeded in convening it and he managed to renew the legitimacy of Fatah and himself.”

In the opening session of the first congress since 2009, Mr Abbas won unanimous endorsement to stay as chairman of the dominant movement in the Pal- estine Liberation Organisation.

As such he is in position to call a long delayed session of the PLO’s parliament – the Palestine National Council – to hold elections for the PLO executive committee and central council.

But Fatah, facing a challenge from rival Hamas and loss of statehood hopes to Israeli settlement expansion, is now formally split as a result of the summit.

Mr Abbas excluded followers of former Gaza security chief Mohammed Dahlan from the congress.

Mr Dahlan, who was expelled from Fatah in 2011 for criticising Mr Abbas, lives in exile in the UAE, but has built up a significant following in the refugee camps of Gaza and the West Bank.

“This will be remembered as the conference that split Fatah,” said Naji Shurrab, a political scientist at Al Azhar University in Gaza.

“The split is a reality now, but the problem on the side of Abu Mazen [Abbas] and his congress and the new central committee is that they deny there is a split. If they recognised it, there would be options to find a solution, but they don’t recognise it at all.

“They say Fatah is united, that it’s strong. But this isn’t completely right. Dahlan and his supporters are strong. They have many means, especially money.”

Mr Abbas had reportedly been urged by Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE to reconcile with Mr Dahlan before the conference but refused to do so.

If he is able to convince Arab countries that his leadership has been reinvigorated by the conference, they may be less willing to back Mr Dahlan. If not, his challenge will resonate further.

Jihad Tomaleh, a key Dahlan backer in the West Bank, said the dispute was not over political stances. “We are in dispute with Abu Mazen’s method-dictatorship and exclusion of others,” Mr Tomaleh said.

Before Mr Abbas’s closing remarks to the conference yesterday, the meeting was bereft of new political directions for the movement. In a speech on Wednesday he reaffirmed his desire for a negotiated solution with Israel, condemned Israeli settlement building and indicated that Palestinian recognition of Israel could be withdrawn unless Israel recognised Palestinian statehood.

“We didn’t hear any substantive political debate,” Mr Khatib said. “The whole thing was about names and persons, of who was running for Fatah positions, about who is coming and going.’’

In that respect there was also an absence of innovation. The congress re-elected most of the 21-member central committee and veteran leaders Jibril Rajoub, Tawfiq Tirawi, Saeb Erekat, Nasser Qidwa, Abbas Zaki and Mahmoud Alul kept their seats.

Marwan Barghouti, the popular leader of the second intifada, who is serving several life terms in an Israeli prison, received the most votes. “The central committee is made of one colour,” said Mkheimar Abu Sada, also a political scientist at Al Azhar University in Gaza. Mr Dahlan will now have to decide whether to call a counter-conference of his supporters.

“Most likely there will be a lot of incitement between Dahlan and Abbas. They will keep inciting and accusing each other,” Mr Abu Sada said. “The best thing Dahlan can do is wait for the next congress because as long as Abu Mazen is alive, he will not be able to come back to Fatah.”

He said Mr Abbas was likely to intensify a clampdown on Dahlan supporters after the congress. That could include cutting more Palestinian Authority salaries of Dahlan loyalists in Gaza and waging a security campaign in West Bank refugee camps.

Critics of Mr Abbas say the real loser from the conference was the Fatah movement.

“It will never go back to the previous period,” wrote the Gaza analyst Fayez Abu Shamaleh in the Rai Al Youm website yesterday.

“It will not reunite its members who are dissipating, with unity gone. Its vision is split.”