Jailed Barghuti elected in Fatah top body

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. (1)

Jibril Rajub, Mohammed Dahlan among new members of Palestinian Fatah's Central Comittee.

Palestinian activist Marwan Barghuthi, who is serving five life sentences in Israel, was elected to the governing body of Fatah, which dominates the Palestinian Authority, party officials said on Tuesday.

Barghuthi, 50, who was found guilty in 2004 for his role in five deadly attacks against Israelis, was among the new members elected to the Central Comittee in the party's first such vote in 20 years.

Also elected were former Palestinian internal security chief Jibril Rajub, 56 and former Fatah strongman in Gaza, Mohammed Dahlan.

Top Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qorei was among the party veterans who failed to be elected.
The Palestinian territories have been under Israeli occupation since 1967.

The committee was last renewed at Fatah's previous congress 20 years ago and many members hope that introducing fresh blood into its top bodies will help invigorate the party which has lost much of its clout over recent years.

Members of the party founded in the late 1950s by iconic Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat also elected a raft of new leaders to its 120-strong Revolutionary Council.

About 2,000 delegates cast their ballots at the party congress held in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, the first ever in Palestinian territory.

Allegations of corruption and internal divisions further weakened the party.

In his opening speech at the congress on August 4, Abbas listed a litany of errors he said Fatah had committed, urging delegates to learn from them and use the congress as a platform to give Fatah a new start.

But the very next day, acrimonious disputes broke out as hundreds of delegates protested the lack of administrative and financial accounting by the Fatah leadership since the last congress in 1989.

The congress on Saturday re-elected Abbas as head of the movement, a post he has held since Arafat's death in 2004, and renewed its charter, effectively endorsing his political programme.

Fatah, which over the years has moved away from the armed struggle, underlined its commitment to a negotiated peace with Israel, but stressed that the Palestinian people have a "right to resistance to occupation" in line with international law.

Fatah also blamed Israel on Thursday for the 2004 death of its founder Arafat.
Fatah delegates s unanimously voted to "attribute to Israel, as an occupying power, full responsibility for the assassination of the martyr Yasser Arafat."

Fonte: www.middle-east-online.com