The Palestinian Authority’s first Prime Minister Qurei is out as Barghouti, Erekat, Dahlan, Fares and Rajoub all get elected to Fatah’s central committee.
The ruling party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has voted for sweeping changes in its all-powerful central committee, electing a new generation of leaders known as the ‘young guard’ who won their spurs in two violent uprisings against Israel.
After a week of sometimes heated debate at the Fatah party congress in Bethlehem, the first in 20 years, many of the old guard who had led Fatah since it was founded were ousted in elections to the 21-member central committee.
Abbas was re-elected leader but allegations of corruption and vote-rigging proved to be the kiss of death for Ahmed Qurei, the first Palestinian prime minister and chairman of the congress.
“I think that what’s known as the Old Guard in Fatah gave what it could and it has nothing more to give,” Abdullah Abu Hadid, secretary of Fatah in Bethlehem, told The Media Line. “The movement needs to have new blood in its leadership, a young leadership.”
He and several colleagues in the young guard boycotted the congress in protest after many younger representatives were excluded by Qurei, who was accused of packing the meeting with his allies.
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In the end, a younger generation of 40- and 50-somethings was elected to replace the older leaders, many of whom are now in their 70s.
Newly-elected members of the central committee include veteran negotiator and noted moderate Saeb Erekat and Quadoura Fares, co-author with Israeli campaigners of the Geneva Accords draft peace plan.
Leading the new generation elected to the central committee is Marwan Barghouti, a former peace negotiator now serving five life terms in an Israeli jail for a string of terror attacks. Barghouti’s wife Fadwa told The Media Line that his election is overdue.
“Marwan Barghouthi gained 67% support in Palestinian public opinion polls, so he represents most of the Palestinian people,” said Mrs Barghouti. “He paid with his own freedom for the sake of the freedom of the Palestinian people.”
Also elected were two powerful intelligence chiefs with close ties to the United States: Mohammed Dahlan, the Fatah strongman in Gaza and former West Bank security commander Jibril Rajoub. Both speak fluent Hebrew after years in Israeli jails and meet regularly with Israeli leaders. They represent the tough pragmatism of the younger generation of Fatah: a commitment to peace and negotiations matched with the demand for nothing short of a fully independent Palestinian state, and the threat of another uprising if they don’t get it.
More hardline leaders from Palestinian communities abroad, including refugees from Lebanon, Syria and Jordan who were given rare permits by Israel to attend, were the main losers in the election for the central committee.
Fatah was founded by the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat but it has struggled to find a balance between its militant history and its new commitment to a negotiated peace deal with Israel. Party members believe the young guard can settle the conflict with Israel and create an independent Palestinian state.
Despite the success of this congress and the passing of the torch to a new generation, Fatah still has many challenges ahead. They lost the last legislative council election in 2006 and were then chased out of the Gaza Strip by Hamas in 2007. A presidential election due to be held last January was postponed indefinitely because of ongoing tensions with Hamas.