The Infamy of the Palestinian Elites: An Imminent Split within Fatah?
14 November 2016
By Ramzy Baroud
The Fatah movement is involved in a massive tug-of-war that will ultimately
define its future. Though the conflict is between current Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and once Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan is
in no way motivated by ending the Israeli occupation, their war will likely
determine the future political landscape of Palestine.
The issue cannot be taken lightly, nor can it be dismissed as an internal
Fatah conflict. The latter is one of the two largest Palestinian factions, the
largest within the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and has
single-handedly pushed Palestinians into the abyss of the ''peace process''
and the great Oslo Accords gamble, which has come at great cost and no
benefits.
Moreover, Fatah embodies Palestine's ruling elites. True, Abbas' mandate
expired in 2009 and Dahlan has been accumulating massive wealth since he fled
the West Bank in 2011 (following his public feud with Abbas) but, sadly, both
men wield substantial authority and influence. Abbas runs the Palestinian
Authority in Ramallah with an iron fist and with the full consent and support
of Israel and the United States, while Dahlan is being actively groomed by
various Middle Eastern governments, and possibly Israeli and US powers, as the
likely successor of the aging Ramallah leader.
They are both indifferent to the harsh reality experienced by their people on
the ground.
A limited uprising, known by some as the ''Knife Intifada'' and others as the
''Jerusalem Intifada'', is teetering on the brink, with no serious efforts by
the Palestinian leadership to – at least – try to harness Palestinian energies
towards a sustainable, long-term popular uprising. On the contrary, Abbas has
done his utmost to ignore the Palestinian people's cry for help and for an
astute, courageous leadership.
Instead, Abbas continues to perceive his ''security coordination'' with Israel
as ''holy'', while continuing to crackdown on Palestinian resistance and on
his own Fatah opponents and their supporters.
He is yet to designate a successor, despite the fact that he is 81 years old
and suffers from heart ailments.
This has signaled an opportunity for Dahlan, who has been accused of
involvement in various shady Arab affairs. Dahlan has been aching for a
comeback from his villa in Abu Dhabi. In a recent New York Times article,
Peter Baker, who interviewed Dahlan, described part of his wealth:
His spacious home here in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, features
plush sofas, vaulted ceilings and chandeliers. The infinity pool in the back
seems to spill into the glistening waterway beyond.
Dahlan's amassing of wealth goes back to his years in Gaza, when he was the
head of the notorious Preventive Security Service, itself formed and trained
with the help of the US – the CIA in particular – according to various media
reports. Its torture techniques were criticised repeatedly by international
human rights groups.
Dahlan remains unrepentant: neither apologetic about his unexplained wealth,
nor for the Gaza crackdowns which ended when Hamas deposed him and his
movement in 2007, resulting in a short-lived civil war.
''Two things that I am not denying,'' he told the NYT. ''That I'm rich. I will
not deny it. Ever. And that I am strong, I will not deny it. But I work hard
to increase my level of life.''
Explaining what many perceive as a brutal reign in Gaza, he dismissed it,
saying that he ''wasn't head of the Red Cross,'' at the time.
A Human Rights Watch report expounded on the extent of the crackdown that
commenced soon after the PA took charge of the Occupied Territories in 1994.
For example, ''during the first eight months of 1996, at least 2,000
Palestinians were arrested'' by the PA police. The rate is almost as high as
arrests carried out by the Israeli army. ''The arrests were arbitrary,''
according to HRW and no courts or due process was ever part of the procedure,
which, almost always, involved torture.
Sadly, the legacies of Abbas and Dahlan are largely predicated on such
behaviour, and their current conflict is mostly concerned with personal power
struggles that involve just them and their followers.
Abbas, who is slowly losing the traditional Arab allies who once supported him
against Hamas, and is relegated by Israel – which is trying to arrange the
post-Abbas Palestinian leadership – is trying to explore new alliances. He has
recently visited Turkey and Qatar. In Qatar, he met with top Hamas leaders
Khaled Meshaal and Ismael Haniyeh.
Hamas is not being courted by Abbas to end the protracted and disconcerting
Palestinian feud for many years, but rather to counterbalance earlier moves by
Dahlan to pander to Hamas.
Dahlan is involved in various ''charity projects'' including financing mass
weddings in impoverished Gaza. But it is not Dahlan's money that Hamas is
seeking; rather the hope that he mediates with Egypt to ease movement on the
Rafah-Egypt border.
With a growing clout and rising number of benefactors, Dahlan's resurrection
is assured, but imposing him on an embattled Fatah faction in the West Bank
remains uncertain.
To preclude Dahlan's attempt at regaining his status within Fatah, Abbas's PA
forces in the occupied West Bank have been conducting arrests of Dahlan's
supporters. The latter's armed men are retaliating and clashes have been
reported in various parts of the West Bank.
Moreover, Abbas has called for the seventh Fatah conference to be held
sometime later this month, where the Abbas faction within Fatah is likely to
rearrange the various committees to ensure Dahlan's supporters are weakened,
if not permanently removed.
Considering Dahlan's strong support base and his ability to win followers
using his access to wealth and regional allies, a move against his followers
is likely to backfire, splitting the party, or worse, leading to an armed
conflict. Despite Israel's intentional silence, there are also reports that
Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who was tied to Dahlan repeatedly
in the past, is keen on ensuring the return of Dahlan at the helm of Fatah.
Tragically, the power struggle rarely involves ordinary Palestinian people,
who remain alone facing the Israeli military machine, the growing illegal
Jewish settlements, the suffocating siege, while persisting under an
unprecedented leadership vacuum.
This is one of the enduring legacies of the Oslo Accords, which divides
Palestinians into classes: a powerful class that is subsidised by ''donor
countries'' and is used to serve the interests of the US, Israel and regional
powers, and the vast majority of people, barely surviving on handouts and
resisting under growing odds.
This strange contradiction has become the shameful reality of Palestine, and
regardless of what the power struggle between Abbas and Dahlan brings, most
Palestinians will find themselves facing the same dual enemy, military
occupation, on the one hand, and their leadership's own acquiescence and
corruption, on the other.
– Dr. Ramzy Baroud has been writing about the Middle East for over 20
years. He is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a media consultant, an
author of several books and the founder of PalestineChronicle.com. His books
include ''Searching Jenin'', ''The Second Palestinian Intifada'' and his
latest ''My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story''. His website
is www.ramzybaroud.net.
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