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Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Fatah reappoints Abbas as party chairman as 7th congress kicks off

Fatah reappoints Abbas as party chairman as 7th congress kicks off
Nov. 29, 2016 1:58 P.M. (Updated: Nov. 29, 2016 2:56 P.M.)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=774179

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) -- The Fatah party kicked off its seventh conference on
Tuesday by reappointing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as chairman of
the political faction, as hundreds of members of the movement and other
political groups gathered in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.

According to official Palestinian Authority (PA) news agency Wafa, the
attendees unanimously re-elected Abbas as Fatah chairman during the opening
of the conference, dashing speculations that the event would lead to serious
discussions of a post-Abbas future for the ruling party of the PA.

An estimated 1,400 Fatah members from the West Bank, the besieged Gaza Strip
and the diaspora came to participate.

However, at least 75 Fatah representatives were not granted permits by
Israel to leave the Gaza Strip to attend the conference, and slammed on
Tuesday the party’s decision to go ahead with the event despite a third of
the Gaza representatives not being able to attend.

Saadi Salameh, one of the participants from Gaza, urged Abbas -- who heads
the PA, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and Fatah -- to
"intervene personally" and exert pressure on Israel to grant them permits,
noting that he had planned to run in the elections of members of the Fatah
Revolutionary Council during the conference.

Abbas was scheduled to deliver a speech in front of the assembly on Tuesday
to address the political situation in Palestine in the presence of dozens of
guests from other Palestinian factions, who are expected to leave the
conference afterwards, as the remainder of the days-long congress will
mainly tackle internal Fatah issues.

The Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements had said earlier this week that they
had been invited to send representatives to attend the seventh congress.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command
(PFLP-GC) also declared on Monday that one of its leader, Nasser Rasmi
Kittanah, would attend the conference after receiving an invitation by
Fatah.

In his opening speech, Abbas said there were 60 delegations from more than
20 countries attending the opening ceremony as guests.

Meanwhile, dozens of Palestinian journalists based in the Gaza strip
demonstrated near the Erez crossing on Tuesday morning urging the
Palestinian Authority's Civil Affairs Committee to help them obtain permits
from Israel to travel to Ramallah to cover Fatah’s congress.

The union of Palestinian journalists in Gaza said in a statement that
denying journalists passage to the West Bank to cover the conference was "in
line with the occupation's systematic violation of their rights."

Fatah has witnessed growing internal dissent, with the party discharging a
number of officials from their functions in past months or otherwise
preventing them from attending the party’s conference.

Fatah’s previous congress was held in 2009, and there had been serious
speculations that the 2016 conference would address the pressing issue of
preparing for the future of Fatah, the PA, and the PLO after Abbas.

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