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The Palestinian group Fatah concluded its eighth meeting at the end of Saturday but the results of the elections of the leadership bodies of the group, the Central Committee and the Revolutionary Council, not announced until Monday afternoon. The delay forced Wael Lafi, head of the election committee in the General Conference, who is also the Palestinian president’s legal advisor, to defend the process and the delay.
Even before the gathering, questions about the membership, funding, and political structure of the group – which oversees the Palestinian Authority – overshadowed preparations for the General Assembly.
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Sixty candidates competed for 18 seats in the Central Committee, Fatah’s top leadership body.
Mahmoud Abbas, the 91-year-old Palestinian president, was voted unanimously to become chairman ahead of the vote, a sign of the election’s results and Abbas’ tightening of power.
Dr Nasser al-Qudwa, who was the only member of the Central Committee not to join the General Assembly, told Al Jazeera, “Mahmoud Abbas made this assembly to give the results he wanted and he succeeded”. Many Fatah members agree with this assessment.
The results of the election of Fatah’s main body replaced half of the old guard. That included all but one of Gaza’s representatives on the Central Committee, Ahmed Hilles, a close friend of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who remained.
Abbas’ close confidant and intelligence chief, Majed Faraj, also won a seat on the Central Committee. Faraj is seen by many in Fatah as a rival to Hussein al-Sheikh, who is Abbas. was elected vice president a year ago.
Another sign of Abbas’ hold on the Congress was the election and success of his son, Yasser, to the Central Committee. This was despite the fact that Yasser Abbas has never held a leadership role in any form of Fatah, and this development has overshadowed Fatah’s principles that the Congress was a symbol of democratic power and inclusion.
Palestinian prisoners won three seats in Fatah’s top leadership body, while Marwan Barghouti – imprisoned by Israel for more than 20 years – won the most votes among the contenders.
Another winner is Zakariya al-Zubaidi, a prominent Fatah figure who has been repeatedly arrested by Israel over the years. The famous Al-Zubaidi he escaped with five other Palestinian prisoners From the prison of Gilboa in 2021 he was only taken back and released again in one of the prisoner exchange agreements that took place between Israel and Hamas during the genocide in Gaza.
Fatah and Hamas make up the two main political parties in Palestine, with Hamas in Gaza, and Fatah in the occupied West Bank.
Abbas’ victory?
There were 450 members who competed for the 80 seats of the Revolutionary Council, which is Fatah’s representative and theoretically has power over Fatah’s elections.
However, the winners seem to be led by party insiders.
Absent from the Central Committee for the first time is a representative of Fatah outside Palestine, which is seen by many as a worrying example of a group that has followers in many parts of Palestine.
But the New Commission consists of many technical experts and senior officials of the Palestinian Authority (PA), such as the famous Governor of Ramallah. Laila Ghannam or the head of the PA’s General Personnel Council Musa Abu Zaid.
“These are not leaders. They are workers. They have done as they were ordered,” a senior Fatah official, who spoke to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity, said.
Dr al-Qudwa sees the result as a victory for the Palestinian president, not Fatah.
“President Abbas is the best,” al-Qudwa said. “He succeeded in completely subduing Fatah to his will.”
Most of the winners are also current or former PA personnel, especially in the security sector.
Most of the old guard were replaced by younger members, but many of the new group rose from Fatah’s youth ranks. Several sons and daughters of former Fatah leaders were also nominated despite having no history of participation or membership in the group, such as the daughter of the late chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, Dalal.
Facing difficulties
Kifah Harb, a prominent Fatah figure who unsuccessfully ran for the Central Committee, confirmed to Al Jazeera that many members were worried and skeptical about the Congress committee.
But he was fascinated by the whole process.
“As members of Congress, we are leading the members of Fatah and regardless of the outcome of the elections, we must stand up and support Fatah to move forward to lead the Palestinian movement,” Harb said. “There are no other options.”
The Fatah Congress has been closely followed by international governments and the Palestinian people, who have seen the rivalry within the group play out in advertisements and posts on social media.
Governments around the world see Fatah’s leaders as Palestinian allies in terms of international relations, but Western governments are also seeking reforms to increase support for the Palestinian Authority.
Fatah leaders say the Congress is proof of their commitment to reform, showing some changes in names and the number of people who are leaving, even though power remains in Abbas’s hands.
Whether this appeals to the international community is another matter, but Fatah will have a hard time getting the Palestinians on board.
Fatah’s new leaders are faced with the task of solving a number of chronic problems, including the PA’s failure to pay civil servants and Israel’s hostile policies – including illegal Palestinian taxes, unprecedented land confiscations, settler attacks, and the Israeli-made terrorist disaster in Gaza.
On Monday, when the results of the elections were announced, Fatah presented the main points in a statement, but did not offer any answers on the way forward.
And now it has to satisfy that future, as well as popular demand in presidential and legislative elections that could be very difficult – one of the many tests that await Fatah’s reformed leadership.
