Fatah | The American Task Force on Palestine

Young leaders dominate Fatah vote
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
August 11, 2009 - 12:00am

Younger leaders have gained powerful posts in Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, early results from its first poll in 20 years show. Mr Abbas remains the head, but several veterans apparently lost seats on the powerful central committee. Popular jailed leader Marwan Barghouti, and influential Mohammad Dahlan, who is disliked by supporters of rival faction Hamas, were both set to gain seats. Young members wanted to depose an "old guard" seen as divided and corrupt.

Fatah between its Past and its Present
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Abdullah Iskandar - (Opinion) August 11, 2009 - 12:00am

The “National Palestinian Liberation Movement” (Fatah) has since its establishment distinguished itself from the remaining organizations and factions due to two essential and interrelated characteristics: the first is that it has represented and reflected the aspirations of the Palestinian people as a whole, with its diverse social groups and political tendencies, thus reflecting the image of this people, equally in the occupied interior and in lands of exile.

Abbas emerges stronger from Fatah conference
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - August 11, 2009 - 12:00am

As the Fatah party convention wrapped up Tuesday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas emerged stronger, signaling a comeback for the US-backed peace proponent after his party was trounced by Hamas. His success in shepherding the long-anticipated congress, which updated Fatah's political platform and ushered in a new guard of leaders in the first party elections since 1989, enabled him at last to come out from under the long shadow of Yasser Arafat – the late party founder and icon of Palestinian nationalism.

Abbas re-elected chairman by deeply divided Fatah
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Irish Times
by Michael Jansen - August 10, 2009 - 12:00am

Fatah's first general congress in 20 years yesterday delayed until this evening the vote for representatives on two key decision-making bodies. By postponing elections for a third time, Fatah revealed that it remains deeply divided between the “old guard” who have controlled the movement since its founding half a century ago and the “young guard” who seek to initiate wide-ranging reforms.

Fatah concludes elections
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
August 10, 2009 - 12:00am

Members of the Palestinian Fatah organisation have finished voting in an election marking the movement’s first convention in 20 years. The new members of the organisation’s powerful central committee are to be announced this afternoon. The results will show whether Fatah has succeeded in reinvigorating the movement by bringing new faces into its ageing leadership.

Jordan favors Fatah, but without optimism for success
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Oraib Al-Rantawi - August 10, 2009 - 12:00am

Nearly two years ago, Jordan opened its doors to the attempt by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to restore and awaken the Fatah movement. Fatah is the backbone of the Palestinian national movement and the main Palestinian partner in the peace process to which Jordan attaches special attention. The rise of the Hamas movement and its landslide victory in the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections played a major role in encouraging Jordan to move away from its usual caution and provide all possible facilities for holding the Fatah congress and rebuilding the movement.

Palestinians Elect Leader, Unopposed, as Party Chief
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - August 8, 2009 - 12:00am

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, will retain control of his Fatah party after an election on Saturday in which he ran unopposed. More than 2,000 delegates, a nearly unanimous majority, voted for him in a show of hands at a party conference in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Fatah’s first such gathering in 20 years. Mr. Abbas succeeded Yasir Arafat as the leader of Fatah, a mainstream nationalist movement, after Mr. Arafat, the Palestinian leader who founded it, died in 2004.

Fatah vote contractors making promises to everyone
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ali Waked - August 7, 2009 - 12:00am

The Fatah movement entered the last straight Thursday night ahead of the conclusion of its historic congress. Thousands of phone calls were made, with the most common phrase uttered by the conference's delegates being "what you want is what will be." During a break in Thursday's discussions, a group of vote contractors sat in the al-Khayma ("the tent") restaurant in the West Bank town of Beit Sahour, near Bethlehem, and made phone calls to candidates wishing to be included in Fatah's future leadership.

Damaging divide
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
(Editorial) August 7, 2009 - 12:00am

King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia summed up the sentiments of the entire Arab and Muslim worlds well when he said that Palestinian divisions constitute a greater danger to the Palestinians and their cause than all the threats and acts of aggression committed by Israel. In a letter to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas marking Fateh’s first congress in 20 years, the Saudi king stressed that all Palestinian factions need to come together to make an independent Palestinian state possible.

Fatah’s summit fails to heal ills
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Omar Karmi - August 7, 2009 - 12:00am

Far from being the unifying panacea to Fatah’s ills that it was meant to be, the Palestinian national movement’s Sixth General Conference has proven an ill-tempered and divisive affair, much, say some, in keeping with the party’s record. Indeed, so contentious has the conference been that organisers have been forced to extend policy discussions and delay voting to the two main bodies in the movement, the ruling Central Committee and the Revolutionary Council, until at least tonight, possibly tomorrow. The conference was supposed to end yesterday.

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