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"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource."
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The Palestinians Ever Divided
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| Contributor | Penguin |
| Last Edited | Penguin Jun 28, 2008 01:39am |
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| Category | Analysis |
| Media | Newspaper - Economist (The) |
| News Date | Wednesday, June 25, 2008 07:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | The oldest Palestinian party tries to heal its divisions, but new ones fast emerge
THE charter of Fatah, the more secular of the two main Palestinian political parties, says that unless there are “exceptional circumstances”, a general party congress must be held every five years. The last one was in 1989. But this year may at last see an exception to the exceptional. In the past few months the party has been holding district elections for delegates to the congress. Officials say these will be over in another two months, but no date has yet been set for the congress itself.
If and when it is held, it could do much to determine the Palestinians’ fate. Fatah’s election defeat in 2006 by its Islamist rival, Hamas, owed a lot to splits in Fatah between a cabal of leaders clinging to power and various factions of a “young guard” that is already far from young. If a congress could resolve this, push corrupt time-servers aside and modernise the party, loyalists hope Fatah will defeat Hamas next time there are elections, and so get the Palestinians properly back on the track of peace with Israel, which Hamas officially rejects. |
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