Fatah Holds Eighth General Congress To Elect New Central Committee Amid Gaza War

Fatah is convening its eighth general congress on Thursday, May 14, as the Gaza Strip remains under attack in Israel’s devastating war and the West Bank faces systematic annexation.

“The Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) is convening its eighth general congress on Thursday, May 14”

Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera says the congress is Fatah’s highest decision-making body and that internal bylaws require it to meet every four years, with the eighth congress originally due in 2021 but delayed for five years.

Al Jazeera

The Al Jazeera report adds that approximately 2,580 members are participating across four locations—Ramallah, Gaza, Cairo, and Beirut—to overcome the movement’s geographical fragmentation.

Middle East Eye says Abbas’s Fatah movement is due on Thursday to elect a new central committee for the first time in 10 years, as it faces existential challenges in the wake of Israel's war on Gaza.

Middle East Eye also quotes Jibril Rajoub, the current secretary general of the committee, saying the conference comes as the Palestinian national movement is facing some of "the most serious challenges in our struggle".

Al Jazeera reports that critics and analysts accuse Fatah’s leadership of “engineering” outcomes by “flooding” the congress with more than 2,500 members, prioritizing loyalty over democratic debate.

Al Jazeera quotes Ahmed Rafiq Awad, president of the al-Quds Center for Political Studies, saying, “There is unprecedented controversy regarding the selection criteria,” and describing the goal as controlling results to avoid any “leaps into the unknown.”

Al-Jazeera Net

Al Jazeera also quotes Nabil Amr, a veteran Fatah leader and former minister, saying, “The era where Fatah decides who its candidate is, and that person automatically becomes president, is over,” as he argues any future leader must emerge from a general national election.

Sud Ouest frames the stakes of Palestinian representation around Jibril Rajoub’s hope that the general congress would contribute to “guaranteeing and protecting the creation of a Palestinian state on the international stage and preserving the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.”

Sud Ouest adds that the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects a sovereign and fully independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and in Gaza, and says it is working on the ground to make this solution impossible by expanding settlements.

WAFA reports that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez reaffirmed support for the two-state solution at the Fatah conference, saying it is being held under extremely difficult circumstances facing the Palestinian people and the region.

WAFA says Sánchez stressed the need for responsibility, unity, and political leadership, and reiterated that the two-state solution remains the political framework for achieving a just and lasting solution based on international law.

Al-Jazeera Net describes the conference as taking place at the Palestinian presidency headquarters in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, and says it is the first meeting of its kind in ten years.

Al-Jazeera Net reports that the conference lasts three days with about 2,580 members participating, and that it plans to elect 18 members to the Central Committee and 80 members to the Revolutionary Council.

Al-Jazeera Net also says the conference is described as decisive amid the consequences of the “genocidal war on the Gaza Strip” and security challenges in the West Bank and the occupied Jerusalem, with Jibril Rajoub calling it "the most important in the history of the Palestinian national movement".