Coveting Zion
Fatah’s general assembly has managed to pass to general resolutions. The first one on Jerusalem leaves no wiggle room. Ha’aretz:
The status of Jerusalem as the future capital of a Palestinian state is a red line that no Palestinian leader is permitted to cross, President Mahmoud Abbas’ ruling Fatah faction declared in the West Bank on Saturday. According to Israel Radio, the Fatah general conference, which convened in Bethlehem for a three-day gathering, adopted a position paper which also states that the Palestinian national enterprise will not reach fruition until all of Jerusalem, including the outlying villages, come under Palestinian sovereignty.
(…)”Fatah will continue to sacrifice victims until Jerusalem will be returned [to the Palestinians], clean of settlements and settlers,” the paper states. According to Israel Radio, the paper does not make a distinction between the eastern and western halves of the capital, nor does it distinguish between the territories within the Israeli side of the Green Line and the areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.
And the second one merely confirmed Mahmoud Abbas as leader…in a non-vote.
Mahmoud Abbas was re-elected on Saturday to lead Fatah by consensus at the party conference. There was no vote taken because no other Fatah member challenged Abbas’ five-year rule of the party. Hundreds of delegates cheered and clapped as Fatah leader Tayib Abdul Rahim announced that Abbas was chosen to lead the party.
Technically Abbas can only lead the party for five years, until a new conference is announced, but this is the first time Fatah members have met in 20 years, so it isn’t clear how long his mandate will last.
I suspect “life” wouldn’t be so far off the mark. In other news, after a 3 week lull, kassams have, once again, been flying.
“Technically Abbas can only lead the party for five years, until a new conference is announced, but this is the first time Fatah members have met in 20 years, so it isn’t clear how long his mandate will last.”
That’s not the type of thing that matters much to palestinians. Abbas’s term as chairman of the PA expired last January so he decided to extend it a year. His predecessor died in the tenth year of a seven year term.
When your entire existence is a fraud, why should term limits be any different.
I watch the Fatah congress in action as oppose to watching sitcoms on television. I love the fact Abbas is now ‘elected’ in a ‘non-vote’ vote…talk about grassroots democracy in action – this cracks me right up.