Fatah prepares for Palestinian leadership succession amid focus on 'day after' in Gaza
As President Mahmoud Abbas' approval sags, Fatah leaders have been searching for a formula to break the political impasse within the movement and prepare for potential postwar governance of the Gaza Strip.
You're reading an excerpt from the Palestine Briefing, where we break down Palestine's top political, security and business stories each week. To read the full newsletter, sign up here.
The passing of the mid-December deadline for holding the eighth Fatah congress has accelerated the internal discussion on the urgency of reforming Fatah, the mainstream secular Palestinian movement. The congress has been delayed several times since 2021, most recently because of the war in Gaza.
Fatah leaders past and present, along with activists, have been searching for a formula to break the political impasse within the movement. Despite discord regarding how to change, there's widespread agreement that leadership change is much needed.
Palestinians generally feel that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is a lackluster leader who appears to take no initiative and has been absent in dealing with the war in Gaza and the uptick in settler violence. And they also feel that Abbas, who is 88, appears unable to satisfy the aspirations of his own cadres. Well-placed sources tell Al-Monitor that there is much discontent that Abbas has not deployed armed Palestinian security personnel to Palestinian villages and communities that have become constant targets for settler attacks in the West Bank.
