Ever Divided

The oldest Palestinian party tries to heal its divisions, but new ones fast emerge

THE charter of Fatah, the more secular of the two main Palestinian political parties, says that unless there are “exceptional circumstances”, a general party congress must be held every five years. The last one was in 1989. But this year may at last see an exception to the exceptional. In the past few months the party has been holding district elections for delegates to the congress. Officials say these will be over in another two months, but no date has yet been set for the congress itself.

If and when it is held, it could do much to determine the Palestinians’ fate. Fatah’s election defeat in 2006 by its Islamist rival, Hamas, owed a lot to splits in Fatah between a cabal of leaders clinging to power and various factions of a “young guard” that is already far from young. If a congress could resolve this, push corrupt time-servers aside and modernise the party, loyalists hope Fatah will defeat Hamas next time there are elections, and so get the Palestinians properly back on the track of peace with Israel, which Hamas officially rejects.

But the congress is far from a done deal. Supposedly young guards, such as Qaddura Fares (aged 46) and Radi Jirai (57), complain that the 21-member central committee is using rules that date back to when most Fatah members were in exile to rig the congress in its favour by restricting the numbers of delegates and applying a complex system of quotas. Azzam Ahmed, a close associate of Mahmoud Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen), the Palestinian president and Fatah’s head, dismisses such talk as agitation by allies of Marwan Barghouti, a Fatah leader in an Israeli jail whom opinion polls consistently reckon to be the most popular among voters. Each side blames the other for the delays.

Mr Barghouti’s allies certainly fear that Ahmed Qurei (Abu Alaa), seen as the old guard’s leader, is manoeuvring to succeed Mr Abbas as Fatah leader and thence as president. Having won the post of chief peace negotiator last autumn after a spell in obscurity, Mr Qurei has positioned himself well with Fatah’s key allies, Israel and America. But his reputation and electability among Palestinians are abysmal, which is bad for Fatah and good for Hamas.

Still, elections may not happen, and if they do they may be even more of a circus than the Fatah congress. Mr Abbas’s term was due to end next January, but he has extended it by means of a decree tying the presidential poll to a parliamentary one, due a year later. Hamas does not recognise the decree, just as it does not recognise the interim government that Mr Abbas appointed in its stead after a bloody showdown between Hamas and Fatah forces in Gaza a year ago. Hamas argues, with some justification, that Mr Abbas contravened the constitution on both counts. And without Hamas’s acquiescence there cannot be elections in Gaza. In the West Bank, where Mr Abbas still holds sway and where his security forces, with Israel’s help, have practically rooted Hamas out, he can expect a Fatah win even if the party remains sclerotic. But it would be a hollow victory and do little for his successor’s legitimacy.

Besides its internal power struggles, Fatah is also starting to divide over two ideological issues. One is reconciliation with Hamas. Among the older generation of Fatah, hatred of Hamas runs deep. Leaders such as Mr Barghouti, who fought side by side with Hamas militants during the second intifada that started in 2000, are more likely to seek to build bridges, says Khalil Shikaki, a Palestinian pollster. After a year of extreme hostility following Hamas’s takeover of Gaza, Mr Abbas seemed to soften this month by dropping some of his preconditions for talks between the two parties. But he may merely be dangling the prospect of a thaw with Hamas, to try to scare Israel into making more concessions in its faltering peace talks with him.

Those talks are the second point of dispute. The old guard have a personal stake in them; they obtained their return from exile and built their subsequent careers by agreeing to work towards a peace deal involving separate Jewish and Palestinian states. Some others, however, have come to believe that such a deal is no longer reachable. Mr Jirai, for instance, thinks it is time for Fatah to give up and start campaigning for a “one-state solution”. Unlike what Hamas aims for, he says, this would not be an Islamist state but a secular, democratic one where Muslims, Christians and Jews have equal rights.

At the last meeting of one of Fatah’s inner councils the one-state solution was discussed for the first time since 1974—another reason why the old guard will try to make sure the congress is run their way—and why it may get delayed yet again.