Dahlan blasts Abbas "autocracy" but praises Barghouti

Fatah leader and member of its Central Committee issued a statement, on the anniversary of Fatah’s launch in 47, published by a website connected to him, in which he criticized President Mahmoud Abbas and what he described as “the autocratic approach of leading the movement.”  He also called for a serious and objective revision with the aims of “assessment and evaluation.” “I urge all leaders, staff, and members of the movement to consider the memory of launching the movement a new landmark for assessment, evaluation, rising above all trivialities, and overcoming small people with theories of exclusion and philosophy of elimination, who only see Fatah and Palestine through the criteria of their whims and their personal agendas. Those were always a heavy burden on our movement,” said Dahlan. Dahlan pointed out that all who stand in the way of the movement’s unity must be after its destruction, for reasons known or unknown and to be revealed sooner or later by history. In reference to the decision of his dismissal from the Central Committee, which he openly challenges, he called on Fatah leaders and staff to work hard for the organizational and political unity of the movement, while holding on to democracy in facing autocratic approaches practiced by some of the movement’s senior leaders. Dahlan pointed out that late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat, along with all historic leaders of the movement, were able to maintain independent national decisions, turning down all forms of custody to be imposed on the movement or the PLO, which should be the case. As a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Dahlan noted that the national reconciliation and the unity of Palestinians would not be established without a strong basis of Fatah’s unity, as a lever to the national project. Dahlan paid tribute to the prisoners in Israeli prisons, sending a special brotherly greeting to “Fatah’s symbol in detention, leader Marwan Barghouti (member of Fatah’s Central Committee),” hoping that he would come out to lead Fatah’s approach to protect the national project from destruction.