Bethlehem, August 05: The Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas began its second day of deliberations Wednesday – ahead of a crucial election of the organization’s decision-makers for the coming years.
More than 2,000 Fatah delegates have gathered in the West Bank city of Bethlehem for the movement’s first party conference in 20 years.
Congress officials are expected Wednesday to tally the official number of delegates attending, ahead of the voting Thursday of the party’s two main decision-making bodies – the 21-member Central Committee and the 120-member Revolutionary Council.
Delegates are also due to adopt a revised platform before the start of the voting Thursday, which some participants say is expected to call for “peaceful popular resistance” against Israel.
The question whether or not the 51-year-old leading Palestinian organization, which started out as a liberation guerilla movement, should keep the concept of “armed struggle” or “armed resistance” part of its formal lexicon, is a major point of debate at the conference.
Abbas, in a two-hour address at the opening session Tuesday, sought to strike a middle ground between moderates, including veterans who spent the past decade and a half on negotiations, and hardliners, including members of Fatah’s “young guard” who are sceptical of the faltering peace process.
He told delegates that while he insisted on his choice for peace negotiations, the Palestinians reserved their legitimate right to “resistance.” He ommitted the word armed.
Current Fatah Central Committee member Nabil Shaath meanwhile said that Fatah members from Gaza would be allowed to vote by telephone, email or any other technological means.
“We reached an agreement last night to enable Gaza congress members to join the voting process,” he told reporters.
Fatah’s rival, the radical Islamist Hamas movement ruling Gaza, had barred at least 300 Fatah members from the strip to depart for the West Bank and attend the conference.
—–Agencies