BICOM

Palestinian faction Fatah announced last night that it will convene its Congress on 29 November, for the first time since 2009.

Fatah is headed by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and is the dominant faction within the PA and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). The Fatah Central Committee met in Ramallah yesterday evening and issued a statement saying that it had “unanimously decided to hold the Seventh Congress of the movement on Tuesday 29 November in the city of Ramallah and in the presence of all its members”.

It will be the first time that the Fatah Congress has met in seven years. It is expected to elect members to the organisation’s two most influential bodies, a new 23-member Central Committee as well as a 132-member Revolutionary Council, which is considered Fatah’s legislative body.

Critics have suggested that the Congress is an attempt by Abbas to sideline rivals, in particular supporters of Mohammed Dahlan, who this week, in an interview with the Palestinian Ma’an news agency, accused Abbas of “working to drive out all the voices that aren’t obedient to him”.

Dahlan has long been considered a potential presidential rival to Abbas, although this week he denied that he harbours such ambitions. Dahlan headed the Palestinian security forces in Gaza until Hamas forcibly seized power there in 2007. He was part of the Palestinian negotiating team at the Camp David talks in 2000. Accused of corruption and other misdemeanours, Dahlan was expelled by Abbas from Fatah and effectively exiled to Dubai in 2011.

Dahlan has continued to criticise the leadership of Abbas  and in recent weeks the enmity between the two has resulted in violence between Dahlan supporters and PA security forces in West Bank refugee camps.

Dahlan also warned  Abbas in his Maan interview not to use the Fatah Congress as an opportunity to weaken his supporters, “we’ll consider how to respond” he said.