Fat'h in Arabian Gulf calls for boycotting Abbas’s conference in Bethlehem

[03/08/2009 - 12:47 PM ]

AMMAN, (PIC)--

The Movement of Fat'h in the Arabian Gulf declared on Saturday its boycott of the conference of Bethlehem called for by Mahmoud Abbas, the Fat'h leader and former PA chief, and called for forming an emergency leadership headed by Farouq Al-Qaddoumi, the secretary general of Fat'h’s central committee.

Fat'h, in a statement published by Al-Mustaqbal Al-Arabi newspaper, highlighted its full approval of the statement issued by its cadres and resistance fighters in Gaza and Beirut, and the statement issued by Qaddoumi in Tunisia.

The statement called on all members of Fat'h conference who left for the West Bank to return immediately to the regions of the Arabian Gulf and not to participate in Bethlehem conference to be held next Tuesday; otherwise, they do not represent the Gulf region if they insisted on attending the conference.   The statement also called on Qaddoumi to hold a meeting in the near future to form an emergency leadership responsible for running the affairs of Fat'h Movement until making preparations for holding the sixth conference of the Movement outside Palestine.   In the same context, Dr. Naji Shurrab, a professor of political science at Al-Azhar university, said there would be disastrous consequences for Fatah if its sixth conference was held nominally.

In a press statement to the PIC, Dr. Shurrab did not rule out that there would be strong differences between the participating members of the conference, because there is a power struggle within Fat'h.

He also underlined that Fat'h might renew during the conference its adherence to the option of negotiations with Israel and the peace process, adding that Fatah can never renounce this option despite its leaders’ knowledge that there is a right-wing Israeli government.

For his part, member of the Palestinian national council in Lebanon Salah Salah highlighted in a press statement to the PIC that Fatah, which used to be the backbone of the Palestinian national movement, is in a miserable state and has witnessed a lot of internal conflicts especially after the assassination of late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat.

“The current situation indicates that the conference will maintain the minimum level of the Movement’s unity or what might be called ‘a state of coexistence’ and not a strong unity for one main reason … that there is no party in Fat'h able to split from [Fatah],” Salah opined.   In another context, informed sources revealed that parties affiliated with Fat'h embezzled millions of dollars allocated for the propaganda of the legislative elections held in 2006 and did not give one cent for the companies which provided services for Fatah during the elections.

The sources told the PIC reporter on Sunday that these companies which produced electoral publications and promotional materials three years ago appealed to Mahmoud Abbas to pay for all services they provided for Fat'h during the elections.