National dialogue remains stalled as accusations rise within Fatah itself against the Ramallah leadership, writes Khaled Amayreh in the West Bank The chronic and brewing crisis within Fatah is not only creating tension -- even conditions of implosion -- inside the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) mainstream faction. It is also hindering a breakthrough in national reconciliation talks with Hamas. Last week, Egypt, which has been brokering Palestinian reconciliation talks in Cairo, warned the two factions that Egypt wouldn't continue to serve as an "open guesthouse" forever. The tacit Egyptian warning came after the two largest Palestinian political groups failed to resolve the issues that remain contentious between them, including power-sharing arrangements in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinian sources in the Gaza Strip have argued that Fatah and Hamas would have achieved a breakthrough in the last session of talks in Cairo had it not been for "the intransigence and ill will" on the part of the "extreme right wing" of the Palestinian Authority (PA). Hamas had repeatedly accused figures representing this camp, including President Mahmoud Abbas and his allies in Ramallah, of not really being "enthusiastic about reconciliation with Hamas". "The thing they fear most is the formation of a national unity government, or government of national reconciliation, since such a government would interfere with their own anti-patriotic designs and parochial calculations," said Hamas official Fawzi Barhoum. "These people have become hostage to their own parochial interests and are therefore disinterested in genuine national reconciliation," he reiterated. This week, Fatah leader and former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei confirmed that a great deal of progress had been made in the Cairo reconciliation talks between Fatah and Hamas. "It was agreed that the PLO is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and that the organisation would have to be reformed. We also agreed that the elections to the presidency and to the Legislative Council will be held on 25 January 2010, but we still differ on the electoral system [to be used]." Qurei pointed out that Hamas was still refusing to commit itself to previous agreements reached between the PA and Israel. "Their proposal that they will only 'respect the agreements' doesn't satisfy us." Qurei added that Egypt proposed setting up a joint team that would serve as an interim umbrella, and that Egyptian mediators made it clear to both factions that they were not willing to be an interminable guesthouse and that a decision would have to be reached by July. Nonetheless, there are some issues that even the Egyptians won't be able to tackle. These include demands by the "Abbas camp" that any unity or national reconciliation government would have to recognise Israel. For Hamas this is an absolute red line for religious, ideological, moral and political reasons. According to Ahmed Youssef, advisor to the Gaza-based Hamas government of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas proposed the formation of an "ad hoc" government whose main task would be preparing for the 2010 elections and providing essential services to the Palestinian people, while the PLO would continue to deal with political process, including possible peace talks with Israel. Some sources have suggested that Abbas's intransigence with regards to reconciliation talks with Hamas is aimed, at least in part, at pressuring his rivals within Fatah -- people like Farouk Qadoumi, who have been showing a certain propensity to accommodate Hamas's views with regard the peace process. Moreover, Abbas is apparently worried that "giving too many concessions" to Hamas would weaken his own position within Fatah, undermine Western -- especially American -- backing of the Ramallah-based regime, and eventually harm Fatah's election prospects in 2010. Meanwhile, the PA's security agencies continue to arrest and detain hundreds of pro-Hamas sympathisers, mainly on concocted charges pertaining to their support for the movement. Some of the detainees reportedly have been severely tortured and hospitalised, prompting Hamas to accuse the Western-backed regime in Ramallah of "undermining every chance for national reconciliation". The PA claims that the arrests are not political in nature and that suspects are arrested for violating the rule of law. However, according to most observers and human rights groups operating in the West Bank, PA claims in this regard "lack in credibility". Hamas has consistently complained that the rounding up and torturing of its supporters in the West Bank has "a poisoning effect on reconciliation efforts". Meanwhile, it is increasingly obvious the internal Fatah crisis is deepening and exacerbating over the convening of the movement's Sixth Congress. Fatah leaders, both inside and outside the occupied territories, have been attacking Abbas and his allies, accusing them of "pushing Fatah to the abyss". Last week, Fatah leader Qaddura Fares, an ally and confidante of imprisoned Fatah Secretary- General Marwan Barghouti, was quoted as asking, "What sort of democratic movement is that which doesn't hold election for 20 years?" Barghouti is widely viewed as a chief rival of Abbas and some circles have suggested that the PA leader actually dreads an Israeli decision to free Barghouti, possibly in the context of a prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hamas. Two weeks ago, Abbas abruptly decided to terminate the Sixth Congress preparatory committee, which had been meeting in Amman for months in an effort to set up the agenda for the long overdue conference, announced that the congress would be held in Bethlehem on 1 July. The decision, which was taken without coordination with Fatah leaders, drew angry reactions from many quarters within Fatah. Mohamed Jihad, a prominent leader of the movement based in Amman, accused Abbas of "holding Fatah and the entire Palestinian cause to the whims of a person known as Salam Fayyad". Jihad, a member of the dissolved preparatory committee, also castigated the formation of the new government in Ramallah, calling it an "anti-national government". He urged Fatah supporters everywhere "to be vigilant in order to confront the conspiracies being worked out against the Palestinian cause". For his part, Qadoumi has reiterated his fierce opposition to holding the Sixth Congress under the Israeli occupation, arguing that it would be absurd and futile to "hold a conference that is aimed at expediting the struggle against the Israeli occupation under the umbrella of the occupation itself". Speaking in interview with Al-Kefah Al-Arabi journal this week, Qadoumi lambasted Abbas for exceeding the confines of his authority, arguing that Abbas had no right to dissolve the preparatory committee that he said had the exclusive authority to determine the date and venue and all other details pertaining to the Fatah convention. "The important thing is that the preparatory committee has decided to hold the conference outside occupied Palestine since holding it under the Israeli occupation would seriously undermine its ability to take decisions that are incompatible with Zionist interests. There is simply no safety, no security, and no guarantee that everyone would be able to access the conference venue without Israeli interference. For all these reasons, we are not confident that the deliberations of the conference would be immune from Israeli interference. Hence, holding the conference in the West Bank under the canopy of the occupation would be illegitimate, irresponsible and unacceptable," Qadoumi said. In this light, it is widely expected that were Abbas to insist on holding Fatah's Sixth Congress in the West Bank under the current circumstances it would lead to the deepening and widening of the rift between rival camps within Fatah. Some observers predict that the conference will be put on hold indefinitely pending more appropriate circumstances, both within Fatah and at a national level.
