Fatah after Arafat.. Will you return to the struggle scene again? | Policy

Ramallah- In light of the continuing aggression against Gaza strip Since last October 7, the supporting role of… West BankThe Palestinian factions were placed accountable for this support, whether popularly or through armed resistance operations.

Perhaps it was the Palestinian Liberation Movement to openThe movements that the Palestinian street questioned most about their resistance actions, especially with the large interaction of their cadres in the first period of the war in the pro-resistance marches, some of whom chanted forMuhammad Al-DeifCommander-in-Chief LIzz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades -The military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (agitation)-, in the marches that took place in the West Bank.

Today, on the 19th anniversary of the death of one of the movement’s historic leaders Yasser Arafat “Abu Ammar”, Al Jazeera Net raises a question about the future of the movement that Abu Ammar helped found and led until his death, and the future of Liberation Organization Which is the largest faction in light of the Israeli war on Gaza, and what could result from it.

The 19th anniversary of the assassination of the martyr, the Mujahid leader #Yasser Arafat Abu Ammar.
The anniversary of your departure passes, and the Palestinian reality is difficult #Gaza That’s it! pic.twitter.com/3n4cuqN3C2

— Dahlia A. Nofal 🌿♉️ Dahlia Nofal (@DahliaDou) November 11, 2023

Conquest after Abu Ammar

19 years have passed since the death of Yasser Arafat, during which the Palestinian scene went through many changes and milestones that greatly changed the Palestinian scene that existed in his time.

Despite the change that included all the features of the political and popular scene, many of them included the movement that Abu Ammar returned in his last days to square one, a national liberation movement that takes the lead in the confrontation with the Israeli occupation, through his direct support forAl-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades -The military wing of the movement-, which was founded 4 years before his death, and was the reason for his siege.

This scene returned the movement from the ruling authority party governed by the peace agreements to the Palestinian street, but with the death of Yasser Arafat, and his successor taking over. Mahmoud Abbas The matter has completely turned around, says Khalil Shaheen, a researcher at the Palestinian Center for Policy Research and Strategic Studies (Masarat).

Khalil continued to Al Jazeera Net, “Yasser Arafat went with the peace option, but at the same time he saw that there were other options, the most important of which was armed resistance, which is what he sided with when he realized that the peace path would lead to nothing, but Abu Mazen saw that as a mistake.”

Khalil Shaheen believed that Abu Mazen tried to correct this “mistake” through a review based on full commitment to the peace agreement. He invested in the security services by spending heavily on them, while holding accountable everyone who deviates from this line from the movement and the PLO, and began to form a loyal class. And the exclusion of those loyal to Yasser Arafat, and then the marginalization of his idea and the fighting role of the Fatah movement.

“These changes included all the movement’s formations, and its bodies were re-engineered, and this was clear during the movement’s conferences, until it became difficult to separate it from the bodies of authority, which harmed its identity as a national liberation movement.”

Political analyst Jihad Harb agrees with Khalil Shaheen that Abu Ammar’s approach differs from that of his successor, but in his opinion, this difference is not fundamental, but rather in style. While Yasser Arafat left room for the resistance option alongside the political line, Abu Mazen stuck to the political option to solve the Palestinian issue and achieve the agreed-upon goal. It is the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Harb continued to Al Jazeera Net, “This imbalance is not new. Since the 1980s, Yasser Arafat has tended to the military side.”

Jihad Harb believed that this difference in the approach followed by Abu Mazen after Yasser Arafat did not change the popularity of the Fatah movement, even though it transformed from a national liberation movement into a ruling party, but it affected its tools and means and the relationship with internal parties.

He added, “Previously, Fatah had good relations with all parties and was in control at the same time, and its leader within the framework of the Palestine Liberation Organization, but currently there is monopolization of the movement over the rest of the parties.”

How will the current situation affect the Fatah movement’s orientations?

Jihad believes that the matter is no longer up to the factions of the Liberation Organization with the emergence of the Islamic Resistance Movement. The presence of Hamas in a competing manner has created problems for the movement and questions about its current presence in the struggle against the occupation, according to his words.

He asserts that this scene is subject to change in the current political situation, and that “Fatah will take the lead in the struggle scene in the Arab Bank if the confrontation with the occupation expands.”

For his part, Khalil Shaheen said in his answer about the impact of what is happening on the movement and its orientations, “Everything is possible.” A large segment of the movement still carries the movement’s first thought, and they present themselves, like Yasser Arafat, as leaders of the Palestinian people, and not just the Fatah movement, in addition to The gap deepens in light of the escalation of the situation in the West Bank between the Fatah leaders and the new generation of the movement’s members.

He continued, “If a prisoner deal takes place and the release of Fatah leaders in prisons, such as: Marwan Barghouti We could witness a significant involvement of members of the movement in the resistance, including the security services in power.”

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He was #Yasser Arafat The longest chapter of our lives. His name was one of the names of the new Palestine, rising from the ashes of the Nakba to the ember of resistance, to the idea of ​​the state, to the reality of its faltering establishment.

The fourth day of war Gaza sand#Gaza pic.twitter.com/329AvcSP1G

– 𝙰𝙼𝙹𝙰𝙳 𓂆 𝙶𝙰𝚉𝙰 ‎𝙰𝙼𝙹𝙰𝙳 (@AlDirdasawii) November 11, 2023

What about the role of the PLO and its future?

Speaking about the legacy of Yasser Arafat, it is impossible to ignore the Palestine Liberation Organization, of which he was the president and founder of its rules after its establishment in 1965. This organization brought together the factions of national action in that period, and led their struggle until the establishment of the Palestinian Authority after Oslo agreement In 1993.

Member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Wasel Abu Youssef, told Al Jazeera Net, “For Yasser Arafat, the Liberation Organization was one of the constants that he maintained until his martyrdom, and even after that, the organization remained committed to the idea and constants of it.”

Abu Youssef rejects what some observers say that the role of the organization declined after the death of Yasser Arafat, and that the authority overcame its role. He confirms that, in light of all the events that followed, it remained the disappointment of the Palestinian people and the compass that points to the constants. The organization was never isolated from what was happening on the ground. The land in the homeland and the diaspora, and he continued, “The organization is the one that created the authority, and it is responsible for it.”

Regarding the organization’s role at the present time, Abu Youssef said, “Since the beginning of the war, we have worked with all Arab and international factions and parties to prevent the occupation’s plans to displace the Palestinians, and we pushed towards a pressing Arab position to stop this aggression and begin a political process on the basis of international legitimacy.”