Abbas tells his Fatah base to reform or be dissolved

PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT Mahmoud Abbas has told the Fatah movement, his political base, to reform itself or risk dissolution.

Mr Abbas scolded Fatah’s Revolutionary Council, the movement’s legislative body, for cancelling local elections this month because Fatah could not agree on candidates. “We must hold ourselves to account over what happened. If [this] is allowed to pass, this movement must say goodbye. The test does not bode well for any official in Fatah, including myself.”

Although Fatah, which administers the West Bank, did not face Hamas, which boycotted the elections and barred them in Gaza, it nevertheless insisted on calling off the vote because it feared a second humiliating defeat. In the 2006 parliamentary poll, Fatah lost the majority in the Palestinian legislative council to Hamas.

Many Palestinians turned away from Fatah because of mismanagement, corruption and the failure of the peace process to provide tangible benefits. Fatah took 41 per cent of the vote, Hamas won 44 per cent. Hamas, competing for the first time in a national contest, won 74 seats and Fatah only 45 because its candidates competed against each other in most constituencies. By contrast, Hamas fielded one candidate in each constituency.

Factionalism has always been Fatah’s main weakness. Founded in the late 1950s by Yasser Arafat and a small band of exiles living in the Gulf, Fatah took root under- ground in numerous locations, creating geographical factions. Mr Arafat exacerbated Fatah’s factionalist tendencies by pitting groups against each other to maintain personal control. Mr Arafat and hundreds of Fatah exiles imported their rivalries when they took up residence in Gaza City and Ramallah in the mid-1990s.

He continued to play factional games until his death in 2004.

Mr Abbas, who has neither Mr Arafat’s charisma nor his ability to manipulate, has not even tried to forge a unified movement since his 2005 election to the presidency. A number of leading Fatah personalities have left the movement in despair.

Former spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi stood in the 2006 parliamentary poll with independent Salam Fayyad, the current prime minister, as the Third Way – neither Fatah nor Hamas.

Mr Abbas may have spoken out sharply against Fatah’s factional- ism at this time because senior Fatah figures are demanding posts in Mr Fayyad’s cabinet, which is largely composed of technocrats. Fatah is concerned that Mr Fayyad is rapidly gaining popularity because he has reformed the Palestinian Authority’s finances and made some gains on the economic front, following a 40 per cent fall in GDP between 2000 and 2008.

Mr Fayyad has put his weight behind the boycott of Israeli settle- ent goods and services, banned Palestinians from working in settlements, and joined Palestinian protests against the West Bank wall and fence complex. He has cultivated a common touch by helping to plant olive trees in areas where Israeli soldiers or settlers have either uprooted or burnt groves.

He is increasingly seen in western capitals as a possible successor to the presidency.