The Palestinian National Liberation Movement "Fatah" celebrates today, Friday, the 56th anniversary of its launch, and analysts believe that it is at a crossroads, and that it must conduct comprehensive reviews, realize the unity project, and face the settlement challenges and waves of Arab normalization with the occupation.

In his diagnosis of the reality, Palestinian writer Majid Kayali says that Fatah "is now standing on two paths, either to rise or fall, and which path of them depends on what it does or what the leadership of this movement does not do."

Kayali repeats in a study entitled "Where was the Fatah movement? Where did it become and why?"

After its launch in early 1965, Fatah is credited with resurrecting the national identity of its people by compensating for the absence of an independent region and establishing a political entity that can restore the rupture in the reality of the Palestinian people, which paved the way for imposing its presence on the political map and later on the geographical map.

However, the writer, after 5 decades of that, talks about the most pessimistic scenario regarding the reality of Fatah and its future, and tells Al-Jazeera Net that the movement is facing a major crisis in its organizational structure, political behavior, and leadership. "And unless there is a review of its path and reform in its project and relations. There is no future in the foreseeable future. "

He adds that despite its militant career and political acumen enjoyed by its early leaders, led by the late leader Yasser Arafat, Fatah - which launched the armed struggle - ended it in favor of the option of negotiation and settlement, by signing the Oslo Agreement (in 1993).

He believes that the movement strengthened the position of the Liberation Organization, as it is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinians, and then marginalized and excluded the organization in favor of the authority, and that the movement that created the identity and political entity of the Palestinians was the one that went towards a solution for a part of the people on a part of the land.

Al-Tirawi: We differ in opinion and do not fight (Al-Jazeera)

Failed?


While celebrating the historical role of Fatah in establishing the unified entity for the Palestinians after the Nakba, and its role in the resistance work for decades, Tawfiq Al-Tirawi, a member of the movement's central committee, says that Fatah failed to establish an independent Palestinian state, which is still in need of a long and continuous struggle.

When talking about divisions, especially after the defection of leader Muhammad Dahlan and his dispute with the leadership of the movement in Ramallah, Al-Tirawi says that Fatah, since its inception, has been accused of divisions, and this is not true, because it is not an ideological party but a broad movement such as a “multi-ideological and currents garden,” adding, “We differ in opinion. But we are not fighting. "

With this talk, Tirawi wants to overcome the challenge of the internal crises of the movement in favor of more dangerous challenges, especially the settlement plans surrounding the Palestinian issue, unlimited American support for Israel and Arab normalization.

But the former MP for the movement in the Legislative Council, Najat Abu Bakr, says that after 56 years of its inception, Fatah is in a state of decline and division, "and what we are witnessing now does not portend a positive future."

She added, "Fatah’s mission was to turn the lights on so that the Palestinians would not fall into dark corridors. Now the Palestinians have fallen into dark political and social corridors, and this indicates the fading of Fatah’s role, which threatens to prolong the life of the occupation and the national project in favor of settlers."

The MP re-retreats to what she described as leading the beneficiaries of the organizational scene within Fatah, after the dismissal of the mediating generation between the old and the new, which could have actually stimulated the movement.

Nevertheless, she says, "It is true that Fatah appears now as a heaven in the titles and a fire in the details, but there is no choice but to correct the action of the movement towards the compass for which it was found."

Fatah supporters raise a picture of President Abbas in 2016 (Al-Jazeera)

Everyone’s Crisis


On the other hand, the leader of the Democratic Front, Ramzi Rabah, believes that the Fatah crisis is the crisis of the Palestinian national project, as Fatah and Hamas became part of it after the split in 2007 and the failure to restore unity, with the crises accumulated by the political track after the Oslo agreement that weakened the national project It intensified settlement activity and gave justifications to the Arab regimes for normalization.

Nevertheless, Rabah believes that Fatah is still qualified to run the national project.

But its success depends on reviewing and stopping the path of restoring the relationship with the occupation, but rather defining it as stipulated in the decisions of the National and Central Councils of the PLO, and invoking the strengths of resistance to internal unity and activating international legitimacy decisions and international pressure on Israel, especially after the departure of Donald Trump.

Rabah believes that Fatah is capable of that, but it needs political will and "an end to the state of exclusivity with the decision practiced by the leadership of the Liberation Organization in running the back for national consensus decisions."

Shaheen: Unless Fateh does an assessment of the previous phase and reform the national project, it will witness further retreat (Al-Jazeera)

A dangerous situation


As for Khalil Shaheen, a researcher at the Masarat Center for Political Studies, he says that Fatah’s crisis during the past years was due to its inability to combine the struggle project with the power project, with bets on a political process with Israel, and today “we are facing a retreat” at the levels of power and the political process .

According to the researcher, unless Fateh does an evaluation of the previous stage and reform the national project, it will witness further retreat in favor of the emergence of new national movement harbingers.

Despite this, the researcher believes that a few months ago, there was a great fear of Fatah entering a dark tunnel due to its internal conflicts and the absence of a political horizon, but the election of a new American administration gave "an outlet, even if it was industrial," for the authority led by Fatah towards preserving the status quo, especially with The return of coordination with Israel, the restoration of the expected relationship with Washington, and the expectation of the return of American financial support to the Authority.

But this situation, and despite the apparent stability that it shows, the researcher believes that it will lead Fatah and the national movement to further deterioration as the occupation deepens on the ground without any political solution.