Once Again.. Just Before the Conclusion of the Eighth Fatah Movement Conference Season

There is a disparity between the weight of the Fatah Movement's struggle and history in the Gaza Strip on one hand, and the representation of the Strip in the leadership bodies and institutions of the authority on the other. If we establish a ratio between the population of the West Bank and the population of the Gaza Strip, we find it close to 3 to 2 - the Strip represents about 40% of the total population of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Furthermore, if we add the historical struggle of the people of the Strip and their role in carrying and protecting the issue and national identity after 1948, and considering the dangers of displacement and threats to their national identity currently faced by the inhabitants of the Strip from Israel and others; all of this requires that the leadership and the Fatah Movement give attention no less than what they give to the West Bank, especially in terms of the representation of the Strip in the leadership bodies of the PLO and the Fatah Movement. This, in numerical terms, means that there should be at least one-third of the leadership bodies comprised of residents of the Strip.

The reality is that for years - even before the Hamas coup - there has been only one Central Committee member in the Strip, whose presence is barely felt by the inhabitants, and there are no Executive Committee members, nor is the situation much different in other major and sovereign institutions.

Here, I mean individuals who are actually present in the Strip, in direct contact and interaction with the people, and who suffer the same hardships as the residents, not merely individuals who were born in the Strip or belong to Gaza families. Based on this, individuals like: Bahiya Al-Araj, or Ziad Abu Amr, or Abu Holi, or Abu Zahri, or Siedem, or Ismail Jibr; are not taken into account because they are far from the Strip and do not represent its residents, and they have been appointed to their positions for reasons that are unrelated to their true representation of the Strip's residents. Those who wish to represent the people of Gaza must be physically present in the Strip and live there, especially since the leadership emphasizes the continuing communication between the West Bank and Gaza and its determination to return to the Strip; the leadership and institutional void of the PLO and the Fatah Movement in the Strip opens the door for others to fill this void, and that is indeed what is happening.

We hope that the eighth conference of the Fatah Movement addresses this imbalance, so that there will be at least 3 members from the Central Committee from the Strip. On the other hand, in order to silence the skeptics regarding the democracy of the elections and the results of the eighth conference, as happened with previous conferences, we hope that the vote-counting process is public and attended by all.

Finally.. as long as it is possible to hold a conference for Fatah and conduct local elections, why are presidential and legislative elections not held? If this happens, Fatah's chances of winning will be significant, and this step will also be well received by the international community and donor agencies that demand reform of the authority.