Amari Refugee Camp, West Bank // Hotels in Ramallah, the de facto capital of the Palestinian Authority, were filling up yesterday with delegates to a long-awaited and potentially fateful conference of president Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement.
The first party conference since 2009 that opens on Tuesday is aimed at electing leadership bodies – including the powerful central committee – and formulating strategies for ending Israeli occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state.
But in fact the real drama of the conference is the burgeoning split within Fatah between its chairman, Mr Abbas, and followers of Mohammed Dahlan, the former Gaza security chief who was expelled from the movement in 2011 and lives in exile in the UAE.
It is feared that the conference will formalise and perpetuate the split within Fatah, further weakening the troubled movement that is challenged by rival Hamas on the one hand and is presiding over the loss of statehood hopes to Israeli settlement expansion on the other.
In recent years Mr Dahlan, using his political savvy, has been able to increase his support base, especially in the refugee camps of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Wary of Mr Dahlan’s threat to his primacy, Mr Abbas has expelled or suspended key Dahlan supporters from Fatah and cut the PA salaries of hundreds of others in recent weeks, according to Jihad Tomaley, a Palestinian legislator and resident of Amari refugee camp. Mr Tomaley, who was barred from Fatah last month after he organised a pro-Dahlan gathering, says that hundreds of Dahlan supporters who attended the 2009 Fatah conference have been excluded this time.
The exclusions have intensified bitterness in this crowded and impoverished camp of refugees who were expelled or fled during Israel’s establishment in 1948 and their descendants. Its narrow, drab alleys are situated just a few kilometres from Mr Abbas’s headquarters in Ramallah.
“This exclusion is against democracy and freedom of opinion. It is part of the policy of shutting people’s mouths,” said Samer Hamad, a Dahlan supporter who spoke in a chilly billiards hall adorned with a poster of Fatah founder Yasser Arafat. “My voice will not be represented at the conference, there will not be one Dahlan supporter there.”
Independent camp residents say that more than a third of its population back Mr Dahlan.
Asked why he backs Mr Dahlan, who grew up in the Gaza Strip’s Khan Yunis refugee camp, Mr Hamad, who spent three years in prison for shooting at Israeli soldiers, replied: “Dahlan has a full picture of the suffering of the Palestinian people. He considers the opinions and needs of the people. He won’t listen to the dictates of the US and Israel. He lived in a camp, he lived the life of the people in the camp and he knows their suffering.”
But Ibrahim Al Qatri, a colonel in the PA’s Preventive Security force who lives in the Amari camp, has a very different view of Mr Dahlan. “He intrigues against the legitimate leadership of the Palestinians. His supporters are delinquents who fall outside of national unity. He is going to impose the policies of Israel on us. Abu Mazen [Mr Abbas] is keeping the Palestinian principles, he is following the path of Yasser Arafat.”
Abbas stalwarts also fault Mr Dahlan for the loss of the Gaza Strip, which was seized by Hamas during a brief civil war with Mr Dahlan’s security forces in 2007.
But Mr Dahlan is undeniably popular in Amari, where Mr Abbas is viewed with disdain by many. Nasser Abu Zir, 41, wheelchair-bound since being shot by Israeli troops in 2005, said of Mr Abbas: “May Allah help him. He served a lot. He’s too old, it’s time for him to rest.’’
Much of the affection for Mr Dahlan in the camp stems from his orchestrating donations for camp residents, be it knapsacks for schoolchildren filled with school supplies or much needed food parcels. Hundreds of parcels containing tuna, tahini, corn and other canned goods were to be distributed to camp residents on Monday night, Mr Tomaley said.
“It’s one of the reasons Dahlan is so popular.”
Tensions in the camp boiled over last month when Mr Tomaley organised a gathering of Dahlan supporters from all over the West Bank to discuss the Fatah conference and press for Mr Dahlan being readmitted to Fatah. Security forces ringed the camp and ordered the meeting to disperse. Youths threw stones at the security forces, who fired tear gas.
Of the exclusions from the conference, Mr Tomaley said: “They want to prevent a large number from attending the conference so the results will be controlled. For the first time the conference is being held with only loyalists and no opposition. Anyone who opposes is excluded.
“We won’t recognise the decisions. This is an exclusionary conference. The results of the conference are not legitimate, including the election of the central committee.”
But Abdullah Abdullah, a Palestinian legislator who supports Mr Abbas and is one of the 1,400 delegates to the conference, said it was Dahlan supporters who were not legitimate. “Anyone who does not respect the decisions of the investigative committee which found Dahlan responsible for the loss of Gaza, anyone who supports him, should be excluded as well.”
Mr Tomaley says that had Mr Dahlan been allowed back the conference could have been a celebration of unity, but as it stands it will mark a fracture of the movement.
“This will contribute to the splitting of Fatah. It will create people who are frustrated and angry. Those excluded will be angry. Those punished unjustly like me and dozens of others will be angry. The hundreds who lost their salaries [because they support Dahlan] will be angry. This creates a state of frustration,” he said.
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