Where is Fatah Movement?

Author: أحمد صيام

The Fatah Movement, the pioneer of national struggle, the one who fired the first bullet, the conqueror of the myth of the invincible army, when it restored dignity in the eternal Battle of Dignity for a nation that had lost it in the Nakba followed by the Naksa, the leader of the war to confront the broadest Israeli aggression targeting an Arab country in 1982, imposing the longest siege on its capital at that time to undermine the resolve of the resistance, the one that ignited the stone intifada, the first to lay the foundations for the upcoming Palestinian state.

Fatah Movement, which offered the best of its leaders and its members as sacrifices on the altars of freedom, independence, and liberation from slavery, leaders whose images have become immortalized in our consciousness with their military uniforms and safari suits, and weapons never far from their sides. Leaders who have often embraced the sky and spread out on the earth, taking refuge in caves and tunnels, with the smell of gunpowder emanating from them. They drew their strength from the summer's heat and the scorching sun, and the cold winter and its rainy atmosphere. We have never seen them in luxurious suits, elegant ties, or Parisian perfumes, nor enjoying the warmth or cooling of air conditioning.

Fatah Movement, which always took the initiative in any protests supporting the rights of various segments of our people, initiating angry marches and demonstrations, and sit-ins in protest against the occupying practices against our people, especially the prisoners, establishing tents for protests and hunger strikes while waving the threat of a comprehensive civil disobedience to lift the injustice from our sons imprisoned behind the bars of occupation.

Our previous generations were naturally connected to the Fatah Movement, growing up and knowing that Fatah is the mother of the masses, and that it is the national immunity against any regional, Arab, or international infiltration. There is no disagreement that if Fatah is strong, the Palestinian national movement in all its colors is strong, and Palestine is better off. If Fatah weakens, then it undermines the very essence of the national movement.

However, the perplexing and perhaps provocative question for everyone who knows the Fatah Movement and its strength and influence is: Where is this movement, which is considered the mother of the masses, in light of the developments and events shaking the Palestinian arena, the most prominent and dangerous of which is the war of starvation and genocide inflicted upon our people in Gaza? Especially since no resounding voice has emerged from its Central Committee, its Revolutionary Council, or any of its frameworks, except for vague statements that do not rise to the magnitude of the event, which is the most grave in Palestinian history, and its horror is unbearable! Has the role of the movement ended and become imprisoned in Oslo and its aftermath of privileges for the climbing and benefiting lot of opportunists while the silent majority is filled with pessimism, surrounded by incapacity, and mourning for past glories?

Without a doubt, the engagement of a large number of the movement's cadres in the institutions of the Palestinian Authority, both security and civil, has negatively impacted the organizational work of the movement, especially since most of those engaged in authority frameworks are organizationally qualified and early Fatah members who nursed on the full-fat milk of the movement, growing up in its various frameworks. However, their holding of sensitive positions within the authority has left a gap in popular organizational mobilization work. It can be said that this contributed to distancing the movement from popular action, leaving the space for others, who are not organizationally qualified, to take on the role that should be theirs among the masses, needing diligent work to educate them organizationally, and they have not been given what they hoped to achieve from a struggle that has lasted for decades, resulting in a state of confusion and intellectual and struggle-related turmoil among these masses, especially concerning the resistance ideology that Fatah was the first to initiate. It ended with its distancing from that and calling for its reformation according to current developments, under the slogan of peaceful resistance, and even that the movement and its cadres failed to utilize it in a way that serves the national interest and the wounds of the Palestinian people.

It is also undeniable that a state of confusion surrounds the Palestine Liberation Organization and all its factions without exception, of which Fatah is the backbone, and the Palestinian National Authority, which have both become powerless to provide the minimum needs for the Palestinian citizen. A confusion perhaps stemming from a clear failure to exhaust all effective options, or negligence - whether intentional or not - or a falling into the Oslo prison and its one-sided commitments directed solely towards one side, while the other side evades them hoping for the unraveling of this ongoing contract for three decades, leading to the realization of its dreams of seizing the Palestinian dream of freedom, independence, and statehood.

Many official Palestinian voices call for the revelation of the silent Arab peoples, who are oppressed by their conditions. At the same time, these voices remain silent in front of the local public opinion and do not work to invigorate their people to support our families in Gaza, who are dying of hunger and thirst before they die from the bullets of occupation. Hence comes the role of Palestinian national movements, topped by Fatah, to readjust the revolutionary work against the policies and practices of occupation and racism.

The Fatah Movement, as the backbone of the Palestinian struggle, carries the largest burden, and its Central Committee, Revolutionary Council, and all its frameworks are required to come down from their crumbling ivory towers, to stop the battles of loyalties and buying allegiances, and to face the challenges. Before anything else, they must separate their cadres who are economically tied to the national authority and its various institutions, restructure their cadres organizationally, and then start a national dialogue leading to national unity, at the very least a national consensus, that first leads to ending the state of geographical and demographic division, and to end the intellectual confusion among all segments of the Palestinian people. This requires a Fatah renaissance that generates a real will that rejects the policy of monopolizing Fatah decision-making and marginalizing qualified cadre while excluding the opportunists benefiting from the flabby state of the movement, otherwise the fate of the movement will be at stake, standing at a very difficult crossroads. If it does not manage to orient its compass correctly, it will fade away amidst the rapidly unfolding events!

There is no longer any justification for remaining silent, observing events from a distance, and living off the nostalgia of past glories. It is disgraceful to see European peoples taking to the streets to support our rights while we, the owners of the house, stand still. It is embarrassing to call upon our Arab brothers for support while we silence the voices of our free people. It is shameful to call the world to support us economically while we squander our money on pleasures and self-interests!