BETHLEHEM: The second day of Fatah’s first congress in 20 years was marked by acrimonious rows on Wednesday as delegates demanded accountability from the leadership of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’ party.
Hundreds of delegates at the gathering in the West Bank city of Bethlehem protested the lack of administrative and financial accounting by the Fatah leadership since the last congress in 1989.
They rejected the explanations of the party’s governing bodies that Abbas’ opening speech on Monday amounted to a report on Fatah’s management over the past 20 years.
Delegates interrupted a speech by central committee number two Ahmed Ghneim, who angrily left the podium.
Abbas, who did not take part in the debates, was called into the hall to help calm things down. “I admit we have committed errors, even sins, but the rendering of accounts must be done during committee meetings and not through chaotic interventions,” he said.
But Abbas himself was interrupted. Security forces briefly intervened as a delegate ordered out by Abbas refused to leave the room. “We are here to put Fatah back on track, not to settle scores,” Abbas said.
Meanwhile, Fatah members who are trapped in the Gaza Strip, and are not able to travel to Bethlehem to attend the conference will vote by phone, email, or any other means which is agreed on.
Nabeel Shaath, Fatah central committee member, announced on Wednesday morning that the Fatah conference administration would allow the Gaza delegates to cast remote votes in the central committee and revolutionary council elections.
“We agreed that they can vote this way, so that Gazan delegates would not feel marginalized or neglected. The Gaza Strip is a very important sector which can never be abandoned, even for a moment,” Shaath said, according to local media sources.
He added that the conference had agreed to add 25 more members to the revolutionary council, and five more to the central committee, thus giving Gaza one-third of the seats.
A special committee will be formed to supervise the voting in Gaza. More than 2,000 delegates from the West Bank, Gaza, and abroad are registered for the conference which will elect new leadership for the Fatah movement.
Fatah members in the Gaza Strip demanded that they be allocated a quota of positions in the party’s governing bodies — the Central Committee and the Revolutionary Council. “Gaza will have adequate representation,” congress spokesman Nabil Amr said, avoiding using the word “quota.” The congress is due to adopt a new political program and replace some of the top leaders of Fatah. It is only the sixth such conference since Arafat founded the party in the late 1950s.
— With input from Hisham Abu Taha
