The first Fatah conference in 20 years launched today, with the leading Palestinian faction gearing up to elect new leadership. Due to the inability of some Fatah officials in Gaza to attended the event in Bethlehem, Fatah intends to hold a concurrent conference in the Strip to ensure Gaza-based party members have input.
The primary agenda item at the conference involves two documents that guide Fatah’s policies. The principles expressed in these documents reflect the internal disagreements within Fatah and amongst the Palestinian people as a whole. Even within the ruling party, Fatah, some members advocate armed struggle based on previous methods employed by the organization while other leaders within the party urge political solutions endorsed by the international community. The “Political Program” document expresses the Fatah views to an international audience. The document does not explicitly advocate armed resistance and asserts the need to examine international peace plans, such as the Arab Peace Initiative. Meanwhile, the “Internal Order” document advocates the use of force and armed resistance while rejecting the initiatives bolstered by the international community. This document largely appeases internal Fatah factions that urge a more active and armed strategy to attain an independent state. Analyzing these documents, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs analyst Pinhas Inbari writes,
“While Fatah’s Political Program tries to accommodate international expectations and seems designed to mobilize international legitimacy for the re-launching of a “peaceful intifada,” Fatah’s “Internal Order” reminds us how deeply ingrained in Fatah is its ideology from the 1960s and 1970s.”
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