Many passed over in Fatah's elections are disgruntled while Abbas drops talk of resistance and picks up the prospects of peace with Israel, writes Khaled Amayreh in the West Bank While Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas is trying to utilise the outcome of Fatah's Sixth Congress held in Bethlehem to boost his status and stature, and possibly enhance the Palestinian negotiating position vis-à-vis Israel, voices are being heard within Fatah questioning the legitimacy of the group's new leadership. The protesters are many and are generally at a loss as to how they should organise themselves into a coherent body. They are reportedly arguing, correctly, that the new Executive Committee were actually elected by a minority within Fatah and that the majority of Fatah's rank and file didn't approve of the new leadership. This week, a leaflet signed by the "Emergency Leadership of Fatah" was circulated in Ramallah and some other parts of the West Bank urging erstwhile members of Fatah's Executive Committee to meet as soon as possible in order to take the proper legal measures to convene a new general conference for Fatah. Needless to say, the leaflet suggests that those who stand behind it don't recognise the legitimacy of the Bethlehem conference. It is uncertain who stands behind the leaflet, which portends the reappearance of certain real "cracks" within the movement's reclaimed unity. However, it is widely believed that efforts were being made to form a sort of "broad front" comprising opponents to the Abbas leadership. One of the main protesting voices is Ahmed Qurei, veteran Fatah leader, who is also a former prime minister of the PA government, former speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council and head of Fatah's Mobilisation Department. Speaking to reporters this week, Qurei charged that the Bethlehem conference was "conspiratorially manipulated" in a manner that guaranteed that only specific lists would win. Qurei drew a question mark over the method of elections and the way the canvassing process was carried out. "I believe that certain arrangements were being made behind the scenes to delete names and impose other names. The method that we all agreed upon to supervise the election process was not followed, as we had agreed to cast all the votes of the Central Committee hopefuls in one ballot box, but it was made in 10 ballot boxes." He also hinted at "external" interference in the elections process, saying that, "what happened in Tehran was less than what happened in this election." He added: "The current stage is hard and difficult, and there were offers for a temporary state and a solution without the right of return and without Jerusalem, and it seems that there are people in the Palestinian arena who are ready to accept those offers." Qurei also questioned the fact that many of the people elected at the Bethlehem conference were actually "security chiefs" who had close contacts with the Israelis. "Did this happen by chance?" asked Qurei. The veteran Fatah leader argued that he was against holding the Sixth Congress in Palestine under the Israeli occupation. "But when things happened contrary to my will, I tried my best to put the congress on the right track, but unfortunately, everything was turned upside down because there was a group that wanted something against the will of the majority." Concerned about the prospects of renewed polarisation within Fatah, Abbas reportedly invited Qurei to a meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Executive Committee in Ramallah amid rumours that the PA leader was going to offer Qurei the important job of secretary-general of the PLO Executive Committee. Qurei, who failed to win a seat on the Fatah Executive Committee, didn't attend the meeting, suggesting that he wouldn't be "cajoled" or "reconciled" into accepting the "illegal and illegitimate conduct" at the conference. Another erstwhile Fatah heavyweight who has lashed out at the manner in which the Bethlehem conference was conducted is Nabil Amr, PLO ambassador to Egypt. This week, Amr asked Abbas to relieve him of his job as ambassador to Cairo and of all other portfolios and official tasks in Fatah, including supervising the newly founded Al-Falistiniya satellite TV station, a propaganda outlet that is meant to counter Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV station. Amr -- widely considered as Fatah's most prominent and eloquent spokesman -- has not revealed the exact reasons for his sudden consternation. According to reliable Palestinian sources, Amr felt betrayed and abandoned by the Fatah leadership after he was excluded from the nomination list for Fatah's powerful Executive Committee. Amr, said sources, was "very upset" by the manner in which elections for the Fatah Executive Committee were carried out. Amr, who didn't have a camp of his own within Fatah, has always been a "natural ally" of Mahmoud Abbas. Indeed, when the Bush administration insisted that the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat appoint Abbas as prime minister in 2004, Abbas chose Amr as his minister of information. In July 2004, Amr was shot in the leg by a would-be assassin who was believed to have acted on the instructions of Arafat. German doctors amputated his leg later in the same month. The would-be assassin, who had confessed to shooting Amr, was found dead in his prison cell in Jericho more than two years ago. Given Amr's importance to Abbas -- being an irreplaceable media asset -- it is highly expected that Abbas will try to compensate the main disgruntled figures among Fatah's election losers with jobs that would keep them "involved" and "satisfied", if only to keep the Fatah ship afloat and prevent the possibility of it running aground. Nonetheless, the task is not going to be easy by any means. Hundreds of middle and high-ranking leaders, as well as thousands of other activists, failed to get a "chunk" of Fatah's proverbial pie. This week, Abbas was quoted as saying that "negotiations" with Israel were the only way to create a Palestinian state. In his speech at the Bethlehem conference, Abbas said the Palestinians would use all means, including resistance, to restore their rights. His last statement, made Saturday, 15 August, before the PLO Executive Committee in Ramallah, is seen as an attempt to please the Americans and the Israelis who were upset by references to armed struggle made during the Bethlehem conference. Abbas has also been backtracking on his earlier stand against the resumption of peace talks with Israel unless the Israeli government ordered a freeze on all Jewish settlement activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Abbas described the Palestinian position against the settlements as "not a precondition", suggesting that the PA was only awaiting a signal from the Obama administration to resume talks. The PA and the previous Israeli government under Ehud Olmert held intensive and protracted negotiations aimed at reaching a final settlement of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. However, the talks reached a dead-end as Israel refused to meet the two central Palestinian demands: a full withdrawal from the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, and the repatriation of Palestinian refugees pursuant to UN Resolution 194. The possible and unconditional resumption of talks between the PA leadership and the Netanyahu government would likely strengthen and embolden internal Fatah opposition to Abbas and also vindicate the Israeli posture that intransigence vis-à-vis the Palestinians and the rest of the international community, including the Obama administration, will eventually pay off.
