Fatah: Is the Legacy of the Past Enough to Create a New Renaissance?

A few days separate the Palestinian National Liberation Movement "Fatah" from holding its eighth general conference, which is expected to represent an important organizational and political milestone, starting with the election of the members of the Revolutionary Council in preparation for the selection of the Central Committee, the highest leadership body in the movement. However, the atmosphere of the conference does not reflect a state of revival or genuine review, but rather reveals the extent of internal division, conflicts, and factions, along with the moods of satisfaction and anger accompanying the announcement of the participants' and candidates' names.

The preparations for the conference are accompanied by widespread debate within the movement, especially with the emergence of new names viewed as extensions of the authority's and family’s influence within the organizational structure. Among these is Yasser Abbas, the son of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, which reflects the extent of the transformations experienced by the movement and the nature of the internal conflict within it.

Fatah, which was launched in 1965 as a national liberation movement that led the contemporary Palestinian struggle and produced dozens of leaders and martyrs from its Central Committee members and founders, is now living one of its most challenging political and organizational stages. Since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, and following the assassination of the late President Yasser Arafat, the movement has undergone profound transformations, most notably the priority given to authority and administration at the expense of the national liberation project.

In recent years, the crisis has deepened due to policies of exclusion and internal division, the most prominent being the expulsion of leader Mohammad Dahlan and the subsequent formation of the "Democratic Reform Stream" within the movement. The ability of Fatah to renew itself or regain its historical role has also diminished, in light of an aging leadership and a growing crisis of trust between the movement and its popular base.
Thus, comparisons between "Fatah of Yesterday" and "Fatah of Today" are strongly present in Palestinian consciousness. In the past, those sitting in leadership seats were men of significant national and political weight; leaders who created the idea before they managed the organization, and carried the cause before they carried the title. They granted Fatah its meaning, role, and presence, not only through the positions they held but also through their vision, experience, courage, and genuine connection with the people and the national project.

However, as many of the movement's members and Palestinian observers say, those same seats today no longer produce the same significance. Those who occupy them manage the present and future of the movement, but with lighter weights, less capability, and a presence that does not rise to the level of the historical legacy nor the seriousness of the stage. Here lies the real crisis; the problem is not only in the change of names but in the change of meaning itself, and in Fatah's transition from a movement that used to create national action to a framework that consumes its history more than it adds to it.
Fatah has, unfortunately, been emptied of much of its substance, its combative spirit, its pioneering role, and its capacity for initiative and leadership. Therefore, the movement no longer resembles its original image, and it will not regain its status simply by invoking the past or repeating the names of historical leaders, because the question that imposes itself today is: is history alone enough to save the movement?

Amid this decline, Fatah is no longer the locomotive that pulls the Palestinian national project forward, nor the vanguard capable of uniting Palestinians around a clear political horizon. The decline of the movement, alongside the decline of Palestinian factions in general and the blockage of the horizon for national unity, all cast heavy shadows on the future of the Palestinian cause for many years to come. When the locomotive weakens, it is not just a party that stumbles, but an entire nation.
The crisis of Fatah is no longer merely an organizational issue concerning the members of the movement alone, but has become a general Palestinian crisis because Fatah’s historical rise was an ascent of the Palestinian national project, while its today’s decline appears as a direct reflection of the erosion and division experienced by Palestinians.

Today, Palestinians live with a profound sense of political orphanhood. They no longer have a leader to lean on in times of catastrophe, nor a leadership capable of transcending party and factional calculations for the sake of Palestine. Many recall the image of the late President Yasser Arafat as a national symbol who, in moments of danger, managed to unite Palestinians around the idea of national liberation and to make Palestine the central issue above all divisions.

But today, Palestinians seem more united in their suffering and more divided in their leadership. The occupation continues to impose its facts on the ground, hitting hard in Jerusalem and the West Bank, moving towards entrenching Israeli annexation and sovereignty, while division erodes the Palestinian body, and the institutions cling to their positions and chairs, losing legitimacy.

In Gaza, where the tragedy manifests in its harshest forms, children are buried under the rubble, and women search among the destroyed houses for something to sustain them, while the world continues to turn its back on the Palestinian tragedy, and the Palestinian leadership remains incapable of producing an inclusive national project or even regaining the trust of its people. As for the Palestinian refugees in the diaspora, many of them experience an escalating sense of isolation and estrangement, amid the absence of a Palestinian political system capable of protecting their national existence and representing them genuinely.

Today, Palestinians are not just seeking a change of names or the election of a new Central Committee, but they seek a leadership commensurate with Palestine; a leadership that restores the importance of the idea of national liberation, and unites people around a resistance project in its broad form and diverse tools and means, aimed at ending the occupation, not around power struggles and positions.

For Fatah was never just an internal Fatah issue, but a reflection of the entire Palestinian situation. Therefore, its revival, if it happens, will not be a victory for any particular movement, but a revival of the entire Palestinian national situation. However, restoring its historical role today seems closer to a political miracle, amid a Palestinian reality burdened with division, authority, occupation, and internal erosion.