WEST BANK: Fatah members continue their meetings for the 6th congress

Record ID: 562445

  • Title: WEST BANK: Fatah members continue their meetings for the 6th congress
  • Date: 9th August 2009
  • Summary: BETHLEHEM, WEST BANK (AUGUST 5, 2009) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF NATIVITY CHURCH VARIOUS OF CHURCH BELL TOWER OF NATIVITY CHURCH VARIOUS OF SECURITY MAN STANDING ON ROOF OF NATIVITY CHURCH BETHLEHEM, WEST BANK (AUGUST 4, 2009) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SAID ABU ALI, PALESTINIAN INTERIOR MINISTER, SAYING: "This is a feature of Fatah. It is always the oasis of democracy and multilateral knowledge. But there has always been consensus for national interests and the importance of growing this nationalist faction for a new beginning." ABU ALI WALKING AWAY BETHLEHEM, WEST BANK (AUGUST 5, 2009) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF FATAH MEMBERS ARRIVING FOR CONGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) HUSSEIN AL ARAJ, GOVERNOR OF HEBRON, SAYING: "We will form the committees, and we will discuss some of the documents and the papers which will be presented to the congress." MORE OF FATAH MEMBERS ARRIVING FOR THE CONGRESS MOHAMMED SHTAYYEH, PALESTINIAN MINISTER OF PUBLIC WORKS AND HOUSING, ARRIVING AT CONGRESS VENUE (SOUNDBITE) (English) MOHAMMED SHTAYYEH, PALESTINIAN MINISTER OF PUBLIC WORKS AND HOUSING, SAYING: "Israel should realise that these are the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. And that we have been away ten years away from Madrid conference, and we are sixteen years away from Oslo. There has to be a time frame for these negotiations other wise we should be in a position that there has to be a new strategy for the Palestinians, this is a situation that it should not really continue." VARIOUS OF PALESTINIAN SECURITY FORCES IN AREA SIGN READING "PRESIDENTIAL FORCES" IN ARABIC PRESIDENTIAL FORCES VARIOUS OF CARS LEAVING AREA
  • Embargoed: 24th August 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA9YBAB767IWSW473C3BZLRUURI
  • Story Text: Members of the Palestinian Fatah movement continue their meeting for the 6th congress in the holy city of Bethlehem.
    Delegates of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction went behind closed doors at their first congress in 20 years on Wednesday (August 5) to thrash out the obstacles that weakened the movement.
    But the reformists were sceptical on producing genuine reform.
    Those who pinned high hopes on a convention that would re-energise Fatah, locked in rivalry with Hamas Islamists controlling the Gaza strip, were disappointed on Tuesday (August 4), even before the congress began. The "old generation" leadership suddenly added some 700 names to the list of 1,550 delegates in what looked like a bid to pack the congress with loyalists of the status quo.
    "This is a feature of Fatah. It is always the oasis of democracy and multilateral knowledge. But there has always been consensus for national interests and the importance of growing this nationalist faction for a new beginning," Palestinian Interior Minister Said Abu Ali told Reuters Television.
    Tight security was in place as more than 2,000 delegates convened in a Christian school near the Church of the Nativity, Jesus's traditional birthplace, for the first Fatah congress since a gathering in Tunis in 1989.
    Bemused Christian pilgrims threaded through lines of riot police and between knots of heavily armed special forces troops as the movement held its first congress on Palestinian soil.
    While many participants argue that managing to hold the congress is a success in itself, others argue it is not enough as those responsible for weakening the group need to be held accountable.
    "We will form the committees, and we will discuss some of the documents and the papers which will be presented to the congress," said Hussein al Araj, Governor of Hebron.
    The group's political programme is one of the few files to be discussed during the congress. Officials said the draft called for new forms of resistance such as civil disobedience against Jewish settlement expansion and a West Bank barrier that Israel says is for security but which Palestinians see as a land grab.
    "Israel should realise that these are the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. And that we have been away ten years away from Madrid conference, and we are sixteen years away from Oslo. There has to be a time frame for these negotiations other wise we should be in a position that there has to be a new strategy for the Palestinians, this is a situation that it should not really continue," Palestinian Minister of Public Works and Housing, Mohammed Shtayyeh, explained.
    Hamas prevented some 400 members of Fatah from leaving the Gaza Strip to attend, demanding Fatah first release jailed Hamas activists.
    Fatah delegates are due to choose 18 Central Committee members and 120 Revolutionary Council members during the congress, which a spokesman said could stretch into the weekend.
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