Fatah Elects to Change Leadership

Wirepullers: è finito da qualche giorno il congresso di Fatah e, a giudicare dall'esito del voto, sembra che i palestinesi non sappiano bene dove andare (a esclusione forse di chi vive nella striscia di Gaza): riconfermato Abu Mazen, entrano nel comitato centrale anche Marwan Barghouti, uno dei leader della prima Intifada, attualmente detenuto in Israele e Mohammed Dahlan, leader di Fatah a Gaza. Insomma, negoziato o scontro frontale? Rimane al vertice chi predilige il primo, ma si fa sotto chi preferirebbe il secondo. Il tutto con buona pace di Tel Aviv che, di fronte al disorientamento palestinese, avanza con gli insediamenti illegali. (2)

The Palestinian Fatah movement elected a group of younger leaders to its top council on Tuesday, bolstering the movement's credentials as the West's best hope for Mideast peace, according to early voting results.

Fatah's first conference in two decades, while plagued by classic Fatah wrangling and intrigue, appeared to rejuvenate the pre-eminent Palestinian movement at a critical moment, weeks before President Barack Obama is to unveil a comprehensive plan to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Unofficial results indicated that Fatah's younger generation won a majority of seats on the Central Committee, polling officials said, declining to named before official results are announced.
While many of the victors are familiar Fatah figures, some say their rise to the movement's highest ranks will revive Fatah.

"This election is setting a new future for the movement, a new democratic era," said Mohammed Dahlan, the polarizing former head of security in Gaza, and one of the winners.

Among the newly elected are Marwan Barghouti, the 50-year-old firebrand now jailed by Israel and seen as a likely future president, and Jibril Rajoub, 56, a former aide to the late-Yasser Arafat who led several crackdowns on Fatah's Islamic militant rivals Hamas.

Mr. Rajoub said the outcome represented a break from the movement's previous leaders, many of them in their 70s.

"This is a coup against a leadership that had monopolized the movement for a long time without even presenting a report about its work," he said.

Some Israelis criticized the conference for failing to renounce violence, but Fatah's proposed platform seemed to bring the movement in line with Obama's anticipated peace plan. The 2,300 delegates endorsed the concept of a Palestinian state alongside Israel brought about through peaceful negotiations.

However, the delegates conditioned future talks on a complete stop to Israeli settlement construction on land earmarked for a future Palestinian state -- a demand rejected by the current Israeli government -- and said they reserve the right to take up arms against Israel if negotiations fail.

The talk of "armed resistance" appeared aimed at competing with Hamas, which has capitalized on Palestinians' deep frustration over years of failed peace talks.

Overall, it appeared that the pragmatists who never left the Palestinian territories -- and who often spent years in Israeli jails -- won out over exiled hard-liners from places like Lebanon and Syria, permitted by Israel to enter the West Bank this week for the first time in decades.

Perhaps the biggest hindrance to Palestinian statehood dreams is Hamas' control of the Gaza Strip, which together with the West Bank, is supposed to comprise a future Palestine. The Fatah-Hamas rivalry was on stark display when voting hours were stretched to allow Fatah delegates, prevented by Hamas from leaving Gaza, to vote by phone.

All attempts to reconcile the two groups following Hamas' violent 2007 takeover of Gaza have failed. But Gaza strongman Mahmoud Zahar provided a glimmer of hope on Monday, praising dialogue as "the only way to realize Palestinian reconciliation."

"We wish for a new leadership in Fatah so we can continue the dialogue," he said during a visit to Egypt.
The Fatah conference, originally scheduled to last three days, on Tuesday dragged into its eighth day.

Others elected to the 23-member Central Committee included Azzam al-Ahmed, 62, Fatah's leader in the Palestinian parliament, and Mahmoud Aloul, a Palestinian parliamentarian the former governor of Nablus.

Also elected was Salim Zanoun, 78, a Jordan-based Fatah founder who exemplifies the older generation backed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

All told, 14 of the body's 18 elected seats went to new members, the remaining four going to incumbents from the old guard. President Abbas, also a member, will appoint four others.

Results for the 80 elected seats of Fatah's 120-seat Revolutionary Council, which together with the Central Committee sets the movement's policies, were expected on Tuesday. The group's overall leader remains Mr. Abbas.

Fatah held its last conference in 1989 in Tunisia, some 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) away from the delegates' hoped-for homeland. At the time, the movement was headed by Mr. Arafat, the stubble-cheeked guerrilla commander who once famously brandished a pistol while addressing the U.N. General Assembly.

This week's conference was chaired by Mr. Abbas, a suit-wearing moderate who is in many ways Mr. Arafat's opposite. Addressing the conference, Mr. Abbas touted seatbelt use as an example of Palestinian progress -- a notable departure from Mr. Arafat's fiery rhetoric.

Since its last conference, Mr. Fatah has been tainted by rampant corruption, electoral and territorial losses to Hamas and its failure to deliver a Palestinian state despite decades of both fighting and negotiations.

But signs of progress dotted the conference as well. The security improvements the international community has been demanding of the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority were evident in the black-clad, rifle-toting agents -- trained in U.S.-sponsored programs -- stationed at the conference venue, a school across the street from the traditional birthplace of Jesus.

Fatah's fortunes have also been boosted by recent gains in the West Bank economy, thanks in part to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to remove roadblocks and loosen restrictions as part of his so-called "economic peace."

But many Palestinians see these gains as a poor substitute for progress toward independence.
Saeb Erekat, a newly elected committee member, said much of the world is waiting to see whether moderate Palestinians will be able to strengthen their authority and democratic credentials, and regain control of Gaza.

"The international community is asking with one tongue, "Can I get my act together as a Palestinian?'"

Fonte: http://europe.wsj.com/home-page