Ramzy Baroud – Fatah: A New Beginning or an Imminent End?
By Ramzy Baroud • Aug 13th, 2009 at 19:26 • Category: Analysis, Features, Newswire, Opinions and Letters, Palestine, Resistance, Somoud: Arab Voices of Resistance
This is hardly the rational order of things. An overpowering military occupation was meant to be resisted by an equally determined, focused and unyielding national movement, hell-bent on liberation at any cost and by any means. This is the unwritten law that has governed and shielded successful national liberation projects throughout history. The Fatah movement, under Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, however, wants to alter that order, meeting Israeli colonialism with ill-defined ‘pragmatism’, extreme violence with press statements laden with endless clichés that mostly go unreported, and a determined Israeli attempt at squashing Palestinian aspirations with political tribalism, factional decay and internal divisions.
Indeed, the long delayed Fatah Congress, held in Bethlehem on August 4 has underscored the obvious: the all-encompassing movement which was meant to exact and safeguard Palestinian national rights has grown into a liability that, if anything, will continue to derail the Palestinian national project. This comes at a time when the Palestinian people are in urgent need of a collective response that is strong enough to withstand Israeli military pressure and coercion at home, eloquent enough to communicate the Palestinian message to a global audience, and astute enough to galvanize international support and sympathy to the benefit of Palestinian freedom and independence.
But what we witnessed in Bethlehem was a bizarre manifestation of the discord of self-seeking and self-imposed elites vying for empty titles, worthless positions and hollow prestige. The mockery started when hundreds of additional delegates were invited to join in the already bloated number of Fatah members with the hopes that their presence would bolster the position of this factional leader or that. Oddly, the meeting place was occupied Bethlehem. The delegates of the ‘resistance’ movement must’ve passed through Israeli checkpoints and metal detectors to reach their meeting place and talk of hypothetical revolutions and imaginary resistance. Excluded were Fatah members who didn’t pass Israeli screening. Perhaps, they were not ‘revolutionary’ enough for Israeli taste.
Then the show started. One would hope to take an iota of pride in the fact that the delegates were not participants in a typical meet of conformists as is the case in ruling party conferences throughout the region. But this would be self-deceiving. The heated discussions which evolved into screaming matches, were of little relevance to the struggles and challenges facing the Palestinian people at home and abroad. It was not the plight of Gaza, nor the cause of the refugees, nor the best method of garnering international solidarity that invited the ire of most respected members. The disputes were most personal. A so-called younger generation trying to exact greater representation in the movement’s 21-strong Central Committee and the 120-member Revolutionary Council from the so-called Old Guard.
Many news reports reduced the ongoing turmoil in Fatah to sound bites and half-truths. The old recycled gibberish of ‘moderate’ Fatah was once more juxtaposed to ‘extremist’ Hamas; the latter’s violence with the former’s investment in a pretend ‘peace process’, those who want to live in peace, ‘side-by-side’ with Israel and those who want to ‘annihilate’ the Jewish State.
“Now the Palestinians – like the Israelis and the international backers of Fatah – are waiting to see the results,” reported the New York Times. True, but Palestinians were waiting for entirely different reasons.
Fatah has changed over the years. It started as a resistance movement of well-intended members, mostly students and young professionals in the 1950’s and 60’s. The young leadership was motivated by various factors, chief amongst them were the plight of the refugees, the lack of a truly independent Palestinian leadership and the failure of Arab governments to deliver on their promises to liberate Palestine. Resistance was in fact the core of Fatah’s liberation program.
One of the movement’s founders once wrote: “It was not only the experiences and the errors of our predecessors which helped guide our first steps. The guerrilla war in Algeria, launched five years before the creation of Fatah, had a profound influence on us. We were impressed by the Algerian nationalists’ ability to form a solid front, wage war against an army a thousand times superior to their own, obtain many forms of aid from various Arab governments, and at the same time avoid becoming dependent on any of them.”
Over the years, whether out of political of military necessity, internal divisions or any other factors, Fatah grew into a melting pot encompassing romantic revolutionaries and poets, wealthy elites and shifty politicians. It was a strange balance, but a balance nonetheless, which kept suspicious Palestinians hopeful that the revolutionary elements in Fatah would eventually prevail. But following Yasser Arafat’s signing of the Oslo Accord with Israel, in 1993, the millionaires and their dubious politician allies won, turning Fatah into a giant company, feeding on the empty rhetoric of ‘peace’, financed by international donors, and operated by the movement’s ‘pragmatic’ elements, who allied themselves with Israel to preserve their gains, however insignificant.
That is why “Palestinians (were) waiting”, perhaps with the hope that Fatah would once more revert to its founding principles, with a coherent national project, stipulating unity of purpose and clarity of aim. It was not that Palestinians were hungry for violent resistance and eager to blow things up, but they longed for a Fatah that would once more institute resistance as an idea, as a culture, with all of its manifestations, infused as necessary. They wanted Fatah to go back to the basics, own up to the struggle of its people, as opposed to the quisling rhetoric that turned Palestine into a collection of political tribes, each armed with NGO’s, newsletters and bloated bank accounts in various European capitals.
One wants to decry this shameful episode in the history of the Palestinian struggle, but one ought to remember that history has a way of repeating itself. The faltering Fatah that was once established to represent the aspirations of the downtrodden Palestinian refugees is now facing the same historical imperative that other failed movements have faced in the past. If Fatah fails to reclaim itself as a true national liberation movement, an umbrella that unites every facet of Palestinian society, then it will soon splinter and eventually dissolve, if not entirely disappear. But true challenge will remain; whether those who will carry the torch will learn from the “experiences and the errors of (their) predecessors.” Time will tell.
- Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an author of several books and editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His work has been published in many newspapers, journals and anthologies around the world. His latest book is, "The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People's Struggle" (Pluto Press, London), and his forthcoming book is, “My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story” (Pluto Press, London), which is now available for pre-orders at Amazon.
Ramzy Baroud is is an author and editor of http://www.PalestineChronicle.com. His work has been published in many newspapers and journals worldwide. His latest book is The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People's Struggle (Pluto Press, London). His own website is www.ramzybaroud.net
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Fatah was established as a Palestinian movement to check the emergence of an Islamic movement influenced by Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Like the rest of Arab nationalist governments and movement – it always revolved around its 'imposed leadership' without the consent of its younger generation supporters. An once the leadership become un-accountable – it become corrupt and out of touch with the masses – and that's what happened to Fatah.
If the younger generation of Fatah supporters are really interested in reclaiming their ancestral land handed over to the Zionazi thugs – gradually by PLO and Fatah leadership – they must join the ONLY ALTERNATIVE – Islamic Resistance without the Arab national crap – because the great majority of Arabs don't give a damn if the remaining 22% of Palestine land is also annexed to Zionazi state of Israel – because "they're first Egyptians, Iraqis, Saudis, Moroccans, Libyian, etc. and then Arabs and Muslims in the last," – A slogan I heard in Lahore from Gamal Nasser, president of Egyot after his meeting with Pandit Nehru of India.
Ramzi. Salam and thank you for this excellent essay. I hope you agree with me that Arafat should have changed the Fatah logo from two hands holding two rifles to two hands holding “fists full of dollars”. As a close follower of the PLO and Fatah all these years I am convinced that Arafat, the PLO and Fatah are nothing more than a big lied, big fraud and the best con job there is. Fatah since the days of Arafat was nothing about liberation, about ending the Occupation. While in Beirut it never gave a damn about the people under occupation and when it came back to Ramallah it never looked back and never gave a damn about the millions in the refugee camps in Lebanon, or Syria. Fatah just like the old Communist Party is a self serving organization, serving the leadership and serving its members and since all of the funding comes from the people’s treasury, membership and organization are living off the blood and seat of the people. Who would believe that after 45 years, the best that Arafat and his Oslo team could come up with a “management contract” with the Israeli Occupation? More troublesome is the fact that Arafat and his team relieved Israel of ALL of its legal and financial obligations as an “occupying power” in return for the chance to steal, rob and fleece the Palestinians and the international community.
Let us not forget that it was the late Arafat who demanded that all “Palestinian Authority” funds collected by Israel comes to his own private accounts with no chance of accountability or transparency, and worst he entrusted the management of these funds to former senior managers from Mossad. It was Arafat who gave the absolute power and authority to Dahlan and Rajoub to do with the Preventive Security as they did and it was under his watch and eyes that most criminal abuses and cold blooded murders took place. It was under the absolute reign of Arafat that billions were wasted, lost, stolen and remains unaccounted for. It was during the tenure of Arafat that senior leadership were able to enter the world of business” using the people’s money” to accumulate wealth in the hundreds of millions. It was the late Arafat who gave monopolies to Palestinian Oligarch so that they can add to their wealth while failing to create jobs and share the business opportunities with the rest of society. Fatah was and is and will always remain a mafia, a racketeering organization with the leadership acting as “Mafia Dons’ while the membership acting as "Zo'ran" enforcer and thugs. Fatah and its leadership have no sense of shame to accept to live off the blood and sweat of the people to fund expensive life style for its leadership and membership. Fatah is nothing more than a business partner with the Israeli Occupation and its leadership knows if the Occupation end, they will go out of business, since people will never accept to live under the rules of such a corrupt and incompetent organization. What surprise me the most is the total silence of Palestinian intellectuals and self styled “activists” and heads of civil societies who remained silent all these years during the hey days of Arafat and now under Abbas. I guess in Palestine every one has a price for their silence or for their cooperation and collaborations with the Israeli Occupation. With Fatah as the governing party I do not see any hope for the Palestinians what so ever and it is best if they simply petitioned to become full citizens of the State of Israel at least they can get rid of both Fatah and Israel as combined occupational force. It is too bad for the Palestinian people who had to endure 61 years of exile, 42 years of occupation that they end up living under the rule and control of such a criminal, corrupt, incompetent and racketeering organization like Fatah.
One of the keys to the successes of other liberation movements is that, in general, they have been united under a single banner and a single leadership, with internal disputes sublimated beneath the recognized need to send a unified movement to engage the enemy. Another key: The leaders of those successful struggles were not based, living comfortably, outside the country in friendly capitals, dictating orders to those carrying on the fight to the enemy on the ground.
Although the first Intifada was as much a clear rejection of this abnormal situation as it was against the Israeli occupiers, its significance was downplayed or ignored by the organizations in the diaspora that saw their influence fading and acted as if maintaining control was more important than liberating the land. I witnessed this phenomenon in the once active San Francisco Bay Area and we see the consequences today in the diaspora where their activity and their influence is virtually non-existent.
Although he was not the only one nor was Fatah the only organization responsible for this tragedy, for it is nothing less than that, he was the one that set the patterns that perpetuated the divisions that led to the fiasco that just concluded in Bethlehem and the election of the CIA/Mossad asset, Dahlan to Fatah's ruling council. I could only shake my head upon reading that.
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