Fatah’s rich legacy sullied by its failures

The charismatic Fatah of 58 years ago has morphed into a lacklustre movement and tool of Israeli occupation

Getty Images

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) chairman Yasser Arafat attends a ceremony marking the end of a military training, August 17, 1970

Fatah’s rich legacy sullied by its failures

Majed Kayali

last update on 23 Mar 2023

Fifty-eight years after its launch on 1 January 1965, the Palestinian Fatah movement insists on commemorating this event, although it is not the same Fatah anymore. Everything has changed — its political discourse, its organisational structure, its methods, and its grassroots relationships. Having said this, we cannot dismiss the fact that it was Fatah which led the contemporary Palestinian national struggle, imprinting it with its spirit.

The national movement that Fatah embodied at that time has faded over the years, especially after it became an authority after the Oslo Accords (1993). This juncture changed its foreign relations, as well as its relationship with the Palestinian people.

As a faction, Fatah became a ruling party — a bureaucratic political formation, working in favour of the dominant class. From this point on, it stopped being a revolutionary faction, morphing from a charismatic movement into a lacklustre one.

In three decades (1993-2023) it held only two conferences at home. The first conference, the sixth throughout its history, was held in 2009, 16 years after that shift; the second (the seventh) was held in 2016. Critical review of its policies and choices over the years was blatantly absent in the conferences and no strategy was put forward.

More importantly, the Cold War world from which the movement was born into had wholly disappeared. The Soviet Union and the socialist system collapsed and Israel currently has great relations with the major powers, including Russia, China, India, and African and Asian countries, apart from its traditional allies in the West.

Getty Images — Militiamen of El Fatah Palestinian resistance movement, parade in Amman, Jordan, on August 17, 1970 at the end of a training chaired by Yasser Arafat, president of the Central Committee of the Palestinian National Council.

Palestinian cause diminished

Arab support for the Palestinian national movement, and the idea that Palestine is the central cause of the Arab world, have diminished both in theory and in practice. This came as a result of the decline of Arab capabilities in the struggle against Israel, especially as more pressing priorities and threats emerged in various countries such as Iran’s expanding influence.

The fact of the matter is that Fatah was the group that laid the groundwork for the revival of the Palestinian people from the ashes of the Nakba (1948). In its first 10 years of its existence (1965-1975), it placed Palestine back on Arab and international political maps and earned the recognition of the Palestinian political umbrella — the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) — as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

In its first 10 years of its existence (1965-1975), Fatah laid the groundwork for the revival of the Palestinian cause from the ashes of the Nakba (1948) and placed Palestine back on Arab and international political maps.

However, after this period it failed in every political action it pursued. The list is long: liberating Palestine, getting back the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories of 1967, and establishing an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It also failed in the armed struggle, the intifada, the negotiations, and in building the PLO and the Authority.

Intractable crisis

Fatah has been in an intractable crisis since the mid-1970s — the majority of its lifespan. There is nothing left from the Fatah of the mid-1960s — except for Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), who leads the PLO, the authority and Fatah, simultaneously.

The other two senior co-founders, Farouk Kaddoumi and Muhammad Rateb Ghoneim, are ineffective. Being the most targeted movement by Israel, most of its founders or leaders have been killed including its historical leader and engineer, Yasser Arafat.

Nothing remains of the Fatah movement except for the thousands of martyred, injured, and detained and the countless costly sacrifices that the Palestinian people endured for nearly six decades. Fatah's rich political history and contributions to the Palestinian cause have not been, in my opinion, properly studied or given the attention it deserves.

Last man standing

Mahmoud Abbas is the only remaining leader of the old guard. He is in his late eighties. Still, he leads a movement that does not resemble the original Fatah. It is not a continuation of it nor a developed version of it. Under his watch, Fatah structures have languished; its credibility has receded; and it lost its unifying, representational status when it lost legislative elections in 2006.

During his tenure, the internal Palestinian divide was cemented, resulting in the loss of the Gaza Strip (in favour of the Hamas movement). The PLO was marginalised, and the Palestinian Authority became a mere tool of the occupation to suppress the Palestinian people. The concept of the Palestinian people has been dismantled, and each group has different priorities and needs without a comprehensive national vision and a comprehensive political entity.

During Mahmoud Abbas' tenure, the internal Palestinian divide was cemented, resulting in the loss of the Gaza Strip (in favour of the Hamas movement). The PLO was marginalised, and the Palestinian Authority became a mere tool of the occupation to suppress the Palestinian people.

What made Fatah successful in the 1960s was its pluralistic and diverse character as a national liberation movement instead of being a political or ideological movement. Another factor contributing to its popularity was the armed struggle it launched as a response to the Nakba.

When the Palestinians were defeated in 1967, it unified Arab regimes who were searching for causes to cover up their failures. Finally, there was an outpouring of financial support to aid in this armed struggle and a clear investment in Arab alliances during a time of polarisation during the Cold War and the subsequent divisions in the Arab world.

With any organisation, change and transformation is expected. However, what happened to Fatah was much more than this. Apart from factors outside of its control that contributed to its decay, there is a clear defect in how Fatah manages its affairs and makes decisions. The Fatah of today is incapable of development or advancement. What is left is only division and the demise of the Palestinian cause.

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