Who will hold sway over the P.A?
With the succession battle in the territories firmly in the background, the recent Fatah congress has marked the candidates for leading the Palestinian scene in place of Abu Mazen. The primary contenders are Mohammed Dahlan, Marwan Barghouti and Jibril Rajoub
Alon Eviatar
| 02/02/2017
Mahmoud Abbas and Mohammed Dahlan (Photo: AP)
״Li'alQuds Raihin Shuhadaa Bi'lMalayin! Li'alQuds Raihin Shuhadaa Bi'lMalayin!" (= Millions of martyrs are marching on Jerusalem!) – that was the battle cry chanted aloud by the attendants of the seventh Fatah congress convened recently in Ramallah, following the address by the guest of honor, Member of Knesset Ayman Odeh, head of the Joint Arab Party. If that chant sounds familiar to anyone of you – it is because it was the regular chant Yasser Arafat, the former Chairman of the PLO, Chairman of the Palestinian Authority and Chairman of the Fatah Movement would use when he wanted to excite his audience and pump some fresh nationalist-revolutionary blood among his listeners. The Arafat charisma is gone now, but the legacy and cadence have remained the same.
Let's go back in time a little. The sixth Fatah congress was held in Bethlehem in August 2009, and in effect consolidated the rule of Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) who, like Arafat at the time, carries all three titles, and reorganized the Palestinian institutions, not before – quite naturally – ratifying the movement's regulations, which also constitute its ideological convention. No particular moments of drama were recorded during that congress. More than seven years have passed since then, and the pressure on Abu Mazen from among the ranks of the movement has increased. The veterans of the Fatah movement, identified with Abu Mazen and his faction, which consists primarily of members of his own generation, were acutely aware of the members of the younger generation breathing down their necks, and were forced – having no other choice – to finally convene the seventh congress, after Abu Mazen himself had postponed it time and again. At the background of this congress, an ever-intensifying struggle has been under way for many months over the multiple-hat inheritance of Abu Mazen, greedily eyed by practically everyone.
A few words about the organizational structure of this fascinating political struggle. Well, the Fatah movement, leading the Palestinian nationalist school (contrary to the religious Islamic school led by Hamas), constitutes the backbone of the PLO and mainly of the Palestinian Authority and its various organs. It consists of three tiers. At the top of the movement pyramid stand the Chairman and the members of the Central Committee (21 in all – 18 elected, 3 appointed by the Chairman), who constitute the supreme leadership organ of the movement, a "Fatah government" of sorts. Below them stands the Revolutionary Council, consisting of 80 members – the Fatah parliament. The third organ down the hierarchy, the basis of the pyramid, is the General Assembly, consisting of about 2,700 members – which is similar to the forum we know as "Party Center" in Israeli political parties.
According to the decision of the movement chairman, all three organs of the Fatah movement convene to engage in a lengthy discussion of various ideological and organizational issues, at the conclusion of which the movement issues its revised ideological platform, along with a series of organizational decisions which normally include appointments for various functions and so forth.
As stated, the last congress was particularly interesting, owing the Palestinian internal politics having focused on the inheritance struggle. The primary contender to the title is Mohammed Dahlan, with whom the Israeli system is thoroughly familiar as one of the chiefs of the Palestinian security organizations (in the past, he was the head of the Palestinian counterintelligence service in the Gaza Strip), the Palestinian Minister of the Interior and mainly as one of the top members of the Palestinian leadership. Dahlan, known by the kunya Abu Fadi, born in the Khan Yunis refugee camp and currently a wealthy and extensively-connected businessman, is conceived by elements within the Palestinian leadership as the person responsible for the defeat of the Palestinian Authority in the fight against Hamas in the Gaza Strip in June 2007. Ever since that seminal event, where the Palestinian Authority had been caught "with their pants down", Dahlan has lived mainly in the Gulf countries while endeavoring to consolidate his status within the circle that is external to the territories, including Egypt. Additionally, and against a background of intense rivalry with Abu Mazen, Dahlan was banished by the 'Rais' (chief) from the Fatah movement and from the territories generally and dispossessed of all power positions. His faction within Fatah and the Palestinian legislative council sustained some additional blows as a result of intensive and determined activity by Abu Mazen and his people within the Authority, who did everything to deny Dahlan any political foothold. Abu Mazen's final chord in preparation for the congress consisted of preventing Dahlan and other opposition elements, some of whom live outside the Judea and Samaria district, from participating in the congress, so eventually only about 1,300-1,400 people attended it – one half of the quorum. This make-up was more convenient for Abu Mazen's faction for the purpose of shaping the results of the elections to their preference, and especially in order to plant Dahlan, the bitter enemy and tireless subversive, as firmly as possible outside of the court.
The Future Leadership
The first decision made by the leadership of the movement, the less thrilling part of the election process, has not surprised anyone: Abu Mazen, as the only candidate, was reelected for an additional five-year term in office. The significance of this decision is that contrary to some forecasts, Abu Mazen has strengthened his internal status even more, and indicated to his internal and external surroundings that at this point he has no intention of leaving the arena voluntarily. In this context it should be noted that admittedly, Abu Mazen does not enjoy a high degree of popularity among the Palestinian public, but within the Palestinian internal political arena he has successfully negotiated all of the obstacles placed before him since he had ascended to the leader's throne (November 2004).
The second move of the congress was more interesting and meaningful: 65 of the senior members of the movement competed for 18 seats, granting each winner status, power, honor and handsome salaries. Among the contenders were several candidates who aspired to position themselves highly and to improve their political status in preparation for a future 'distribution of the booty' within the Palestinian leadership. The notable and important results of the elections to the Central Committee were as follows: Marwan Barghouti in first place (second to Abu Mazen), Jibril Rajoub in second place. Additionally, movement veterans such as Ahmed Qurei (Abu Alaa), Salim Zanoun (Abu al-Adib) and others were driven out of the team and transferred to the list of the Revolutionary Council. Other familiar names that made it into the Central Committee: Saaib Arikat (the man and the negotiations) and Tawfik Tirawi, formerly one of the leaders of the Palestinian security organs. With the exception of Abu Mazen, the generation made up of the veterans – who are all in their seventies – has vacated the stage for the senior leaders of the interim generation, who are approximately twenty years younger. Not a radical change but one for which many within the Fatah movement had been wishing and hoping for.
Back to the two leading contenders: prisoner Marwan Barghouti, who currently serves five consecutive life imprisonment sentences, naturally enjoys the aura of a war hero and a broad consensus and consistently wins in all of the surveys and polls. But even if he is a natural candidate who conceives himself accepting the burden of the entire inheritance Abu Mazen will leave behind, then out of the prison cell it will be nothing but a virtual honorary candidacy, without any real grasp of the reigns. Barghouti, an ambitious individual, and his associates, including his wife Fadwa, a qualified attorney and a dominant woman (who was elected to first place in the Revolutionary Council), had placed in motion, quite some time ago, a campaign for Barghouti's release, in the hope that it will gain momentum and the pressure on Israel to open the gates of the Hadarim prison would become a reality sometime in the future.
In view of the above, the spotlight should be focused on the person who won second place, Rajoub, currently serving as the Chairman of the Palestinian Football Association – a position of marginal importance. Rajoub, an old and hardened warhorse who knows and understands a thing or two about the Palestinian 'street', is wearing the silver medal (actually – the gold medal) owing to a powerful shove on the part of Abu Mazen who apparently – as indicated by the results – prefers to see Rajoub in a better position not just within the Fatah movement, but also in the 'Final Four' tournament over the leadership of the Palestinian Authority as a whole. At this point, the commentators and analysts take pleasure in juggling various speculations and political evaluations, but there is no doubt that his current status will enable Rajoub – a well-known figure in Israel – to upgrade the lineup of the Palestinian football team, but more than that – to improve his position in preparation for the contest for the position of the Palestinian team captain.
***
Lt. Col. (res.) Alon Eviatar is an expert and lecturer on the Palestinian scene and formerly the Consultant on Arab Affairs to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories.
http://aloneviatar1.wissite.com/aloneviatar
With the succession battle in the territories firmly in the background, the recent Fatah congress has marked the candidates for leading the Palestinian scene in place of Abu Mazen. The primary contenders are Mohammed Dahlan, Marwan Barghouti and Jibril Rajoub
Mahmoud Abbas and Mohammed Dahlan (Photo: AP)
״Li'alQuds Raihin Shuhadaa Bi'lMalayin! Li'alQuds Raihin Shuhadaa Bi'lMalayin!" (= Millions of martyrs are marching on Jerusalem!) – that was the battle cry chanted aloud by the attendants of the seventh Fatah congress convened recently in Ramallah, following the address by the guest of honor, Member of Knesset Ayman Odeh, head of the Joint Arab Party. If that chant sounds familiar to anyone of you – it is because it was the regular chant Yasser Arafat, the former Chairman of the PLO, Chairman of the Palestinian Authority and Chairman of the Fatah Movement would use when he wanted to excite his audience and pump some fresh nationalist-revolutionary blood among his listeners. The Arafat charisma is gone now, but the legacy and cadence have remained the same.
Let's go back in time a little. The sixth Fatah congress was held in Bethlehem in August 2009, and in effect consolidated the rule of Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) who, like Arafat at the time, carries all three titles, and reorganized the Palestinian institutions, not before – quite naturally – ratifying the movement's regulations, which also constitute its ideological convention. No particular moments of drama were recorded during that congress. More than seven years have passed since then, and the pressure on Abu Mazen from among the ranks of the movement has increased. The veterans of the Fatah movement, identified with Abu Mazen and his faction, which consists primarily of members of his own generation, were acutely aware of the members of the younger generation breathing down their necks, and were forced – having no other choice – to finally convene the seventh congress, after Abu Mazen himself had postponed it time and again. At the background of this congress, an ever-intensifying struggle has been under way for many months over the multiple-hat inheritance of Abu Mazen, greedily eyed by practically everyone.
A few words about the organizational structure of this fascinating political struggle. Well, the Fatah movement, leading the Palestinian nationalist school (contrary to the religious Islamic school led by Hamas), constitutes the backbone of the PLO and mainly of the Palestinian Authority and its various organs. It consists of three tiers. At the top of the movement pyramid stand the Chairman and the members of the Central Committee (21 in all – 18 elected, 3 appointed by the Chairman), who constitute the supreme leadership organ of the movement, a "Fatah government" of sorts. Below them stands the Revolutionary Council, consisting of 80 members – the Fatah parliament. The third organ down the hierarchy, the basis of the pyramid, is the General Assembly, consisting of about 2,700 members – which is similar to the forum we know as "Party Center" in Israeli political parties.
According to the decision of the movement chairman, all three organs of the Fatah movement convene to engage in a lengthy discussion of various ideological and organizational issues, at the conclusion of which the movement issues its revised ideological platform, along with a series of organizational decisions which normally include appointments for various functions and so forth.
As stated, the last congress was particularly interesting, owing the Palestinian internal politics having focused on the inheritance struggle. The primary contender to the title is Mohammed Dahlan, with whom the Israeli system is thoroughly familiar as one of the chiefs of the Palestinian security organizations (in the past, he was the head of the Palestinian counterintelligence service in the Gaza Strip), the Palestinian Minister of the Interior and mainly as one of the top members of the Palestinian leadership. Dahlan, known by the kunya Abu Fadi, born in the Khan Yunis refugee camp and currently a wealthy and extensively-connected businessman, is conceived by elements within the Palestinian leadership as the person responsible for the defeat of the Palestinian Authority in the fight against Hamas in the Gaza Strip in June 2007. Ever since that seminal event, where the Palestinian Authority had been caught "with their pants down", Dahlan has lived mainly in the Gulf countries while endeavoring to consolidate his status within the circle that is external to the territories, including Egypt. Additionally, and against a background of intense rivalry with Abu Mazen, Dahlan was banished by the 'Rais' (chief) from the Fatah movement and from the territories generally and dispossessed of all power positions. His faction within Fatah and the Palestinian legislative council sustained some additional blows as a result of intensive and determined activity by Abu Mazen and his people within the Authority, who did everything to deny Dahlan any political foothold. Abu Mazen's final chord in preparation for the congress consisted of preventing Dahlan and other opposition elements, some of whom live outside the Judea and Samaria district, from participating in the congress, so eventually only about 1,300-1,400 people attended it – one half of the quorum. This make-up was more convenient for Abu Mazen's faction for the purpose of shaping the results of the elections to their preference, and especially in order to plant Dahlan, the bitter enemy and tireless subversive, as firmly as possible outside of the court.
The Future Leadership
The first decision made by the leadership of the movement, the less thrilling part of the election process, has not surprised anyone: Abu Mazen, as the only candidate, was reelected for an additional five-year term in office. The significance of this decision is that contrary to some forecasts, Abu Mazen has strengthened his internal status even more, and indicated to his internal and external surroundings that at this point he has no intention of leaving the arena voluntarily. In this context it should be noted that admittedly, Abu Mazen does not enjoy a high degree of popularity among the Palestinian public, but within the Palestinian internal political arena he has successfully negotiated all of the obstacles placed before him since he had ascended to the leader's throne (November 2004).
The second move of the congress was more interesting and meaningful: 65 of the senior members of the movement competed for 18 seats, granting each winner status, power, honor and handsome salaries. Among the contenders were several candidates who aspired to position themselves highly and to improve their political status in preparation for a future 'distribution of the booty' within the Palestinian leadership. The notable and important results of the elections to the Central Committee were as follows: Marwan Barghouti in first place (second to Abu Mazen), Jibril Rajoub in second place. Additionally, movement veterans such as Ahmed Qurei (Abu Alaa), Salim Zanoun (Abu al-Adib) and others were driven out of the team and transferred to the list of the Revolutionary Council. Other familiar names that made it into the Central Committee: Saaib Arikat (the man and the negotiations) and Tawfik Tirawi, formerly one of the leaders of the Palestinian security organs. With the exception of Abu Mazen, the generation made up of the veterans – who are all in their seventies – has vacated the stage for the senior leaders of the interim generation, who are approximately twenty years younger. Not a radical change but one for which many within the Fatah movement had been wishing and hoping for.
Back to the two leading contenders: prisoner Marwan Barghouti, who currently serves five consecutive life imprisonment sentences, naturally enjoys the aura of a war hero and a broad consensus and consistently wins in all of the surveys and polls. But even if he is a natural candidate who conceives himself accepting the burden of the entire inheritance Abu Mazen will leave behind, then out of the prison cell it will be nothing but a virtual honorary candidacy, without any real grasp of the reigns. Barghouti, an ambitious individual, and his associates, including his wife Fadwa, a qualified attorney and a dominant woman (who was elected to first place in the Revolutionary Council), had placed in motion, quite some time ago, a campaign for Barghouti's release, in the hope that it will gain momentum and the pressure on Israel to open the gates of the Hadarim prison would become a reality sometime in the future.
In view of the above, the spotlight should be focused on the person who won second place, Rajoub, currently serving as the Chairman of the Palestinian Football Association – a position of marginal importance. Rajoub, an old and hardened warhorse who knows and understands a thing or two about the Palestinian 'street', is wearing the silver medal (actually – the gold medal) owing to a powerful shove on the part of Abu Mazen who apparently – as indicated by the results – prefers to see Rajoub in a better position not just within the Fatah movement, but also in the 'Final Four' tournament over the leadership of the Palestinian Authority as a whole. At this point, the commentators and analysts take pleasure in juggling various speculations and political evaluations, but there is no doubt that his current status will enable Rajoub – a well-known figure in Israel – to upgrade the lineup of the Palestinian football team, but more than that – to improve his position in preparation for the contest for the position of the Palestinian team captain.
***
Lt. Col. (res.) Alon Eviatar is an expert and lecturer on the Palestinian scene and formerly the Consultant on Arab Affairs to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories.
http://aloneviatar1.wissite.com/aloneviatar
