Dubai, Aug 10 (Inditop.com) The Fatah movement, which is holding its first congress in two decades, has failed to resolve differences within in the party and reconnect with Palestinians, a major UAE newspaper said Monday.
“With the Fatah party congress being extended until tomorrow (Tuesday), there are a few obvious observations: Nothing positive has come out of this meeting,” commented Dubai-based Gulf News in its editorial.
Expressing dismay over the outcome of the meeting, the newspaper noted that Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his aides failed to address Fatah’s internal disputes, WAM news agency reported.
“Abbas, who unsurprisingly was re-elected as leader of the Fatah movement, could have pushed his party members to try to resolve political infighting. Instead, we saw more of the same: flare-ups between members who were concerned with old and new party disputes and sorting out their problems with Hamas or even highlighting Israeli occupation and injustice,” said the paper.
There was no mention of financial accountability. In that sense, Fatah did not succeed in reconnecting with Palestinians and offering change as originally intended, added the paper.
The congress meeting also failed to reach out to Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip, and send a strong and effective message of reconciliation. In fact, it further alienated the Islamist movement and deepened existing divisions, the daily observed.
The editorial also urged both the movements to stop quarrelling with each other and focus on the bigger problem – the illegal constructions and eviction of Palsestinas by Isreal in its occupied territories.
More than 2,000 delegates have been attending the party’s first congress in two decades in the West Banck city of Bethlehem.
However, the congress that began Tuesday has been marked by bitter rows, with numerous delegates blaming the current leadership for the party’s failures.
The last Fatah congress was held in Tunis in 1989.
