New faces in Fatah 'coup' over old guard leadership

FRESH FACES have triumphed in the election to the Palestinian Fatah movement’s 23-member executive council at its congress in Bethlehem, its first in 20 years and the first held on Palestinian soil. According to results released yesterday, 14 of the 18 elected seats went to new members.

Among the victors was Marwan Barghouti, a West Bank grassroots leader serving five life terms in an Israeli prison. Mr Barghouti, a key figure in Fatah’s “young guard”, is seen as a potential successor to “old guard” president Mahmoud Abbas (74), who was acclaimed chairman of the council last Saturday and who now has the right to nominate a further four members.

Three former security chiefs were also selected: Jibril Rajoub and Tawfiq Tirawi, who served in the West Bank, and Muhammad Dahlan, Gaza strongman who mounted a failed coup against Hamas in 2007 and has been dubbed “the man who lost Gaza”.

His presence on the council could prove to be an obstacle to reconciliation. Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah last week publicly warned Mr Abbas that a Palestinian state would “not be established as long as the Palestinians are divided”.

Palestinians welcomed the retirement of septuagenarian figures from Fatah’s founding generation, castigated for failing to create a Palestinian state, cronyism and rampant corruption. In Mr Rajoub’s opinion, the election amounts to a “coup against a leadership that had monopolised the movement for a long time without even presenting a report about its work.”

Dr Ghassan Khatib, a senior commentator, observed that the new leadership preserved the balance in the movement between different factions and trends, but was more “diverse and dynamic” and “more capable of running the organisation” than the outgoing group.

The 2,335 delegates drafted a new political programme and chose members of both the central council and the 120-seat revolutionary council. They called for a Palestinian state alongside Israel, but refused to renounce violence if negotiations failed to achieve this goal.

They conditioned resumption of talks on a total halt to Israeli settlement construction in areas to be allocated to the Palestinian state, a demand rejected by Israel but supported by the US.

The Obama administration hopes the election will reinvigorate Fatah ahead of negotiations which Washington plans to launch in a “matter of weeks”, according to state department spokesman Philip Crowley.