The fact that the Fatah convention was the first in 20 years demonstrates so many of the problems that have dogged the Palestinians in their struggle for justice and statehood. Whatever the past difficulties of organizing such a gathering, it has been long needed to renew the organization and bring in fresh faces and fresh ideas.
Under Yasser Arafat, Fatah became an inflexible group in which power was for too long concentrated in the same hands. Because none of the leading figures was ever accountable to anyone except the rest of the leadership, that power led inevitably at best to complacency and at worst to corruption and the formation of cliques. Mahmoud Abbas thus inherited in 2004 a moribund political party which was widely seen to have failed to give a positive lead to Palestinian aspirations for statehood and a just and honorable settlement with Israel. Suckered into successive rounds of negotiations from which the Israelis then wriggled free, citing Palestinian violence or intransigence, Fatah was considered to have lost the right to lead.
That was driven home in the 2006 elections which saw the triumph of Hamas. The refusal of Washington to recognize this clearly democratic choice plunged the Palestinians into division, radicalized Hamas and left President Abbas with power and influence over only some of his people.
Now, even though Hamas unwisely refused to let 400 Fatah delegates travel from Gaza to Bethlehem, the convention could still be an opportunity for Fatah to renew itself.
The re-election of Abbas as Fatah leader is a start, not least because it was unanimous. Abbas has cut a convincing figure on the world stage and a new leader could have disrupted even what little of the peace process that currently remains. The stalled choice of 18 members of the Central Committee and the 120-member Revolutionary Council has, however, demonstrated the deep divisions between the old guard and the young but not necessarily more radical candidates. These differences have led to the convention being extended from three days to a week.
It is disturbing that long-serving Fatah leaders refuse to recognize how much their movement could be revitalized by the arrival of new blood. It is equally worrying that none of the bickering delegates sees how much this bitter row is undermining not just Fatah but the wider Palestinian cause and bringing joy to the hawkish Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu. Worse still, the all-important rapprochement with Hamas will be so much harder if the same old Fatah faces are running the same old fiefs of corruption and influence. Indeed, if Fatah cannot emerge reformed and revitalized from this convention, then even more Palestinians are likely to turn, in despair to Hamas.
What Fatah members should be worrying about in Bethlehem is not their personal power and influence but the ability of the organization of which they are part to play a renewed political role. That will involve working with Hamas and rebuilding Palestinian unity. Can all the Fatah leaders, who oversaw their party's collapse, really achieve such things?
