op-ed: So that the eighth Fatah conference.... will not be the last

I asked the leader, Yasser Arafat, why do you not like holding general conferences for Fatah, and sometimes delaying their convening for decades?

Answer: The Fatah conference is tired in preparing for its convening, and more tired in dealing with its results.

 I asked him... tired in preparation. these are understandable, but more tired in its results, this is what needs an explanation from you.

He replied: I spend a lot of time taming the successful and a longer time appeasing those who did not succeed, and sometimes matters reached divisions and defections.

 I said.. But there is no normal and effective political movement that does not hold periodic conferences to renew its leadership and programs, so why does Fatah seem to be an exception to this law by which political parties and movements are governed?

 Answer: Fatah is neither a party nor a movement. It is a broad popular movement with multiple tendencies, stances, and backgrounds. That is why I fear for it from its conferences.

 Despite this, general conferences of the movement had to be held, with or without Arafat's consent. Fatah held several conferences in exile, and held two conferences on the homeland during the era of the Authority, and if you asked everyone who participated in the two conferences and those who did not participate, their answer would be the same: “These were two conferences that did not stop the state of the accelerating decline in the status and status of the movement.” And when Fatah retreats, the state of the homeland recedes and the cause itself.

  Now that Fatah is supposed to address a host of internal and national issues and provide ways out of them, we see it more preoccupied with its internal competitive conflicts, which has resulted in widespread marginalization of the majority of its members at all grassroots and leadership levels, and in addition to the army of the marginalized, which is the army of the majority, there are overt and hidden divisions and splits. To the extent that it entered the general election arrangements before it was canceled on several lists. In addition to the divisions that have become widespread in its official structure, the result of this is the failure of many by-elections, even in places that were closed centers of influence for it. The scope is limited if we talk in detail about the deterioration of its condition, as the matter is acknowledged by those who occupy titles, and I do not say leadership positions, or those who are outside labels and frameworks.

 It was finally decided that the eighth conference will be held at the end of this year, and apart from the debate about whether it will be held at all or not, the assumption that it will actually be held at the specified time, leads us to ask questions? Will it be a conference that will remove the historical movement from its deep and many dilemmas? Or will it be a reproduction of the two previous conferences held in Bethlehem and Ramallah?

  I do not want to pre-empt matters and specify a definitive answer to the big question, but the situation can be dealt with in a preliminary way by discussing what Fatah needs in order for its forthcoming conference to be effective in getting it out of the deep impasse.

My judgment: It needs a unifying conference that takes on the character and function of the founding conference. A conference that abolishes the phenomenon of marginalization, exclusion. A conference that discusses political options and mechanisms for their implementation. A conference that is not controlled by obsessions about the succession as if it is hereditary, a conference whose members are not chosen according to the method of pre-sharing votes, nor by the method of mobilizing supporters and placing names in their hands to put them in boxes, a conference to which hundreds of observers from all over the world are invited, and a committee participates in supervising its Central elections, and there is no harm in that if the organizational procedures and arrangements are sound and elaborate. Rather, it is a necessity to provide credibility to the Palestinian people and the world that Fatah led with a solid and unified internal situation, a clear political vision, and a justly and correctly elected leadership.  Whoever says that this is not possible and works to perpetuate the status quo in its worst form as the only possibility, does not want good for Fatah, the cause, or the national struggle.  It is a pivotal test, that it be a conference for all of Fatah, and not for what remains of it and within it, and this is not impossible for an ancient movement to do.  The healthy national and democratic Fatah is in the interest of its people first, its Arab brothers, its supporters and those betting on it all over the world. Let it start with itself in order to be worthy of the support and adoption of others for it and for what it represents.