BETHLEHEM, West Bank: Fatah appeared to have strengthened President Mahmoud Abbas and reclaimed legitimacy with voters on Tuesday by unseating much of the “old guard” of the late Yasser Arafat.
Abbas telephoned Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah on Tuesday. They discussed relations between the Kingdom and Palestine and the latest developments in the region, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
Abbas, 74, gambled by calling the first congress of his fractious movement in 20 years, and won when its 2,300 delegates voted in a younger executive that will rejuvenate Fatah and consolidate his position as leader.
“This is an unexpected result. It’s a big change, a huge change,” said Naser Al-Kidwa, a nephew of Arafat. Preliminary results indicated Kidwa had won one of 14 seats on the decision-making Central Committee to change hands out of the 18 up for election. New faces replaced ageing veterans who failed to win re-election despite, in some cases, accusations of bringing in relatives and staff to vote as delegates.
Among the older figures who dominated Fatah in decades of exile before the Oslo interim peace deal of 1993 was Ahmed Qorie. Early results indicated Qorie had failed to keep his seat.
Palestinian Authority Secretary-General Tayeb Abdelrahim was also among those voted out.
Marwan Barghouti, a popular leader who is serving five life sentences in Israel, was among those elected. Former Palestinian internal security chief Jibril Rajoub, 56, was also elected along with Fatah’s former strongman in Gaza, Mohammed Dahlan.
Hamas urged Fatah’s newly elected leadership to avoid “the mistakes” of their predecessors and take steps toward restoring national unity.
“This leadership will be tested over the degree to which they adhere to the Palestinian people’s rights, steadfastness, resistance, unity, and commitment to end inter-Palestinian rivalry,” said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum.
Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas leader, echoed the party spokesman when he said that the real test for the newly elected Fatah leadership would be the extent of its commitment to Palestinian rights, national unity and resistance.
— With input from agencies
