http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=125309&d=10&m=8&y=2009&pix=opinion.jpg&category=Opinion
Monday 10 August 2009 (19 Sha`ban 1430)
Editorial: Fatah convention
10 August 2009
The fact that the Fatah convention was the first in 20 years
demonstrates so many of the problems that have dogged the Palestinians in their
struggle for justice and statehood. Whatever the past difficulties of
organizing such a gathering, it has been long needed to renew the organization
and bring in fresh faces and fresh ideas.
Under Yasser Arafat, Fatah became an inflexible group in which
power was for too long concentrated in the same hands. Because none of the
leading figures was ever accountable to anyone except the rest of the
leadership, that power led inevitably at best to complacency and at worst to
corruption and the formation of cliques. Mahmoud Abbas thus inherited in 2004 a
moribund political party which was widely seen to have failed to give a
positive lead to Palestinian aspirations for statehood and a just and honorable
settlement with Israel. Suckered into successive rounds of negotiations from
which the Israelis then wriggled free, citing Palestinian violence or
intransigence, Fatah was considered to have lost the right to lead.
That was driven home in the 2006 elections which saw the triumph of
Hamas. The refusal of Washington to recognize this clearly democratic choice
plunged the Palestinians into division, radicalized Hamas and left President
Abbas with power and influence over only some of his people.
Now, even though Hamas unwisely refused to let 400 Fatah delegates
travel from Gaza to Bethlehem, the convention could still be an opportunity for
Fatah to renew itself.
The re-election of Abbas as Fatah leader is a start, not least
because it was unanimous. Abbas has cut a convincing figure on the world stage
and a new leader could have disrupted even what little of the peace process
that currently remains. The stalled choice of 18 members of the Central
Committee and the 120-member Revolutionary Council has, however, demonstrated
the deep divisions between the old guard and the young but not necessarily more
radical candidates. These differences have led to the convention being extended
from three days to a week.
It is disturbing that long-serving Fatah leaders refuse to
recognize how much their movement could be revitalized by the arrival of new
blood. It is equally worrying that none of the bickering delegates sees how
much this bitter row is undermining not just Fatah but the wider Palestinian
cause and bringing joy to the hawkish Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
Worse still, the all-important rapprochement with Hamas will be so much harder
if the same old Fatah faces are running the same old fiefs of corruption and
influence. Indeed, if Fatah cannot emerge reformed and revitalized from this
convention, then even more Palestinians are likely to turn, in despair to Hamas.
What Fatah members should be worrying about in Bethlehem is not
their personal power and influence but the ability of the organization of which
they are part to play a renewed political role. That will involve working with
Hamas and rebuilding Palestinian unity. Can all the Fatah leaders, who oversaw
their party's collapse, really achieve such things?
