RAMALLAH, West Bank — Fatah’s seventh congress came to a close Dec. 4, after its election of a new Central Committee and Revolutionary Council. During the five-day conference, Fatah further entrenched itself as a ruling party that is committed to agreements with Israel as opposed to a national liberation movement with a variety of political views. This was solidified when the movement adopted the Palestinian Authority (PA) political program, which is based on negotiations and coexistence with Israel, even though this program has proven to be a total fiasco since the signing of the Oslo Accord in 1993.

Most of the 1,400 congress members are employees of PA agencies and ministries and receive their salaries from the PA, not Fatah. On top of that, the conference was held at the headquarters of the Palestinian presidency, or the Muqata, in Ramallah, which is supposed to be a state institution, not an institution that serves a party or a movement under the protection of security services.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was elected as head of the movement on the first day of the conference. On the second day, he delivered a three-hour speech that more closely resembled a speech by a head of state, not a speech delivered by the head of a revolutionary liberation movement, as Fatah calls itself. In a speech that now serves as the political movement's program, Abbas focused on the PA’s political approach since its inception.

Mohammed Hourani, a Fatah leader and member of the Revolutionary Council, told Al-Monitor, “There should not be any separation at all between the PA and the Fatah movement. There should be a balanced relationship between Fatah as an organization with humanitarian and combative liberation missions and Fatah’s involvement in the PA, to implement these visions in partnership with other forces.”