Fatah Party Conference

[Dean]

Divisions rock Fatah conference
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/08/20098694357133127.html

The Gaza delegates now demand a quota be set aside for them in Fatah's leadership bodies, and threaten repercussions - presumably a split - if they are turned down.

Co-founder accuses Fatah of graft
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/08/20098593017500517.html

A senior figure in the Palestinian Fatah movement has accused the party's leadership in the West Bank of getting rich at the expense of their own people.

Farouk Kaddoumi, one of the founders of Fatah, made the claims in a statement released before more than 2,000 Fatah delegates began a second day of meetings at the party's conference in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on Wednesday.

"Have you ever heard in history about revolutionary leaders who possess, along with their sons, millions of dollars and sterling pounds?" he asked in the statement released to media organisations.

Kaddoumi also criticised the Palestinian leadership for travelling in private jets and accused them of collecting taxes "for their own pocket".

I thought this was pretty interesting. I hope this leads to the dissolution of Fatah insofar as it is manifested in the West Bank as a method of control over the Palestinian people.

[Yehuda Stern]

As far as I can tell, Fatah is already dead as a mass movement; it is only still alive due to the efforts of the Zionist occupier. It has discredited itself completely in the eyes of the masses due to the sort of rampant corruption that Kaddoumi speaks of, although I highly doubt that he wasn't part of it himself.

[Mather]

As far as I can tell, Fatah is already dead as a mass movement; it is only still alive due to the efforts of the Zionist occupier.


This is more or less true.

Most of Fatah has now been merged with the institutions of the Palestinian Authority (PA), thus Fatah has been transformed from being a national liberation movement with massive popular support and a strong social and political base amongst both Palestinians and the Arab people from across the Middle East, to a marginalised faction that is corrupt, incompetent and totally impotent in the face of Zionist aggression. Fatah has given up on it's goal of liberating the Palestinians from Zionism, Fatah cannot even manage to defend Palestinians when they suffer military aggression at the hands of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).

'President' Mahmoud Abbas has become another 'Quisling', more than happy to betray and sell out the people of Palestine so that his Zionist and US paymasters can keep him in power so that he may run the Israeli occupied West Bank has his own little fuedal domain.

However, some elements of Fatah wish to reverse this sad situation, mainly those Fatah members associated with the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and it's leader and Fatah member, Marwan Barghouti.

It is possible that Fatah could split, with the corrupt elements around the PA and Mahmoud Abbas on one side and the radical faction of Marwan Barghouti on the other.

[Yehuda Stern]

However, some elements of Fatah wish to reverse this sad situation, mainly those Fatah members associated with the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and it's leader and Fatah member, Marwan Barghouti.

It is possible that Fatah could split, with the corrupt elements around the PA and Mahmoud Abbas on one side and the radical faction of Marwan Barghouti on the other.

I have seen no evidence of this; on the contrary, that many Zionists now want Barghouti to be freed from prison because of his popularity shows that they think that he is more capable of selling the PLO capitulation to Zionism than other Fatah politicians. It's like Obama versus Bush - same politics, only more 'left' rhetoric.

[Mather]

I have seen no evidence of this; on the contrary, that many Zionists now want Barghouti to be freed from prison because of his popularity shows that they think that he is more capable of selling the PLO capitulation to Zionism than other Fatah politicians.


I'll admit I don't know that much on Fatah, apart from how they have operated in the last few years, which does make for depressing reading given the capitulation of Fatah to imperialism and Zionism.

But I always though Barghouti was in favour of resistance, either by armed groups or a popular revolt along the lines of the 1988 intifada?


It's like Obama versus Bush - same politics, only more 'left' rhetoric.

I do agree there, as an anarchist-communist myself I don't do the lesser evil game either in relation to bourgeios eletions or national liberaton movements. Both fail to directly challenge capitalism and imperialism, but they can both push the situation in favour of the working class struggle at times, by setting our capitalist and imperialist opponents against each other.

I take it your based in Israel?

If so, what future do you envision for the Palestinian struggle and which group/movement do you think is best placed to resist and possibly defeat Zionism, Hizbullah? Hamas? Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the PFLP or another invasion of Israel/Palestine by Arab armies from the surrounding countries?

[Yehuda Stern]

But I always though Barghouti was in favour of resistance, either by armed groups or a popular revolt along the lines of the 1988 intifada?

All Palestinian political parties claim to this day that they are in fact in favor of the resistance and want to reclaim the whole of Palestine. Their practice paints a different picture, though, especially that of Fatah. So you can't really trust what a Palestinian bourgeois politician says, just like you can't really trust what any bourgeois politician says.

At any rate, yes, Barghouti apparently supports resistance, although he seems to be explicitly saying this resistance is for the post 67 occupation and not to the existence of Israel: "And while I, and the Fatah movement to which I belong, strongly oppose attacks and the targeting of civilians inside Israel, our future neighbor, I reserve the right to protect myself, to resist the Israeli occupation of my country and to fight for my freedom."


I take it your based in Israel?

Correct.


If so, what future do you envision for the Palestinian struggle and which group/movement do you think is best placed to resist and possibly defeat Zionism, Hizbullah? Hamas? Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the PFLP or another invasion of Israel/Palestine by Arab armies from the surrounding countries?

The Internationalist Socialist League, the group to which I belong, is a Trotskyist, i.e. revolutionary Marxist group. Therefore, we do not believe that any bourgeois force is capable of defeating Zionism. All the Islamist and nationalist / Stalinist groups that you mentioned, never mind the corrupt and bankrupt borugeois regimes of the surrounding Arab countries, are always willing to sell out the mass struggle in order to gain the favor of the imperialists who control the region. The only way forward, as far as we are concerned, is to build sections of the revolutionary vanguard party in all of the Middle East, including Palestine and Israel, and to overthrow the corrupt regimes that hold back the struggle against Zionism.