Pressured by the quiet growth of Hamas, the movement behind Abbas may soon be ripe to fall, writes Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank A brewing power struggle is taking place within the Fatah movement, the organisational and political backbone of the Palestinian Authority (PA). The main contention is between the movement's old guard, eager to retain power, and younger leaders at intermediate levels protesting marginalisation as well as "rampant despotism and authoritarianism" by the senior leadership. This week, as many as 15 prominent regional Fatah leaders, including several lawmakers, resigned en mass from Fatah. The resigning leaders, who included Ahmed Ghuneim, Mohamed Hourani, Hussein Al-Sheikh, Qaddura Faris, Jamal Shubaki and Hatem Abdul-Qader, warned that Fatah would suffer a resounding defeat in the upcoming legislative election, slated for 25 July, unless radical organisational reforms within the movement were introduced sooner rather than later. In a press interview earlier this week, Ghuneim argued that Fatah was losing to Hamas in the Palestinian public opinion due to "mistakes and blunders" made by the movement's leadership, particularly the Fatah Executive Committee, controlled mainly by "outsiders" who returned from abroad after the creation of the self-rule authority in 1993. Ghuneim and his colleagues, who are allied with imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, stressed that their mass resignations was not a bluff, as their opponents charged earlier. He warned that the "old guard" would bear full responsibility for the receding status and stature as well as possible disintegration of Fatah. According to Palestinian columnist and political analyst Hani Al-Masri, the real motive behind the resignations is not altruistic. "Those people feel betrayed, marginalised and even cheated by the senior Fatah leadership. And their exclusion from the recently formed government seemed to be the straw that broke the camel's back. Hence, they are trying to save their political future." Al-Masri described the resignations as a "typical intra-factional struggle within a heterogeneous movement that was only kept intact throughout many years by Yasser Arafat". But, he continues, "Yasser Arafat is dead and every faction or group or even subgroup is now looking out for its own interests." It is too early to say whether the resignations will leave a long-lasting impact on the movement or, indeed, succeed in unseating the symbols of the "old guard" like Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei and his allies. The "Barghouti camp", to which most of those who resigned belong or are associated, has been suffering its own image problems of late, especially since the election of Mahmoud Abbas -- Abu Mazen as he is also known -- as president of the PA on 9 January. First, the apparent hesitancy of imprisoned Fatah leader Barghouti in endorsing Abbas's candidacy raised questions. Barghouti declared his own candidacy for the presidency twice, only to withdraw twice, creating confusion within the public as to his stance. Second, some of Barghouti's allies, like legislative council member Qaddura Faris, embraced the so-called Geneva initiative two years ago. The initiative effectively scrapped the paramount right of return for millions of Palestinian refugees expelled or displaced by Israel in 1948, prompting angry reactions from many Palestinians, especially the refugees. This fact, along with the often contradictory attitudes of the resigning figures concerning armed struggle, would seriously militate against them should they decide to contest the upcoming parliamentary elections as a reformed Fatah group or independent list. One of the resigning Fatah leaders, Hatem Abdul- Qader, has intimated that he and his colleagues are only trying to "save Fatah from itself". His way of achieving this goal is through affecting a democratic coup whereby Fatah's grassroots supporters and members are allowed to choose freely local, regional and national leaders "from the bottom to the top". However, it is amply clear that the "old guard" will not just give in to the demands of the younger generation within Fatah but rather fight back, refusing to cede authority and influence so easily. And it has. On Monday, as many as 140 leading Fatah cadres from all over the West Bank circulated a memorandum, castigating the resigning MPs, accusing them of "creating division", "compromising Fatah's unity" and "weakening" the movement. The petitioners also argued that if Fatah were to lose the municipal and parliamentary elections it would be because of "this sort of factional and diversionary adventures", a clear allusion to the rebels. President Abbas, meanwhile, has so far refused to side with either group, fearing further polarisation. Further, there are already a lot of differences below the surface between Abbas and Qurei, some of which are reminiscent to the showdown between Abbas and the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 2003, which eventually brought down Abbas's brief government. However, it is safe to assume that these differences are kept dormant or at least behind closed doors for the time being pending the elections, when a new legislative council will be elected and a new government will be formed. Some Fatah leaders, fearing a poor showing and even poorer results in the elections, are already sending out feelers suggesting and recommending that the elections be postponed at least six months in order to give the movement sufficient time to enhance its popularity and winning prospects. Indeed, such suggestions and "whisperings" might eventually evolve into a formal demand by Fatah, given present difficulties and the image problems it is facing. However, it seems unlikely that Abbas, who is Fatah's ultimate leader and successor to the movement's historical leader and founder, Yasser Arafat, will succumb to such demands as doing so would corrode his credibility in the eyes of the Palestinian public and create a serious rift between the PA and powerful Palestinian factions such as Hamas, Fatah's main rival to the hearts and minds of the Palestinians.
