Palestinian group Fatah set to open 8th general congress in Ramallah

The Palestinian group Fatah is set to open its 8th general congress Thursday at the Palestinian presidency headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, along with simultaneous sessions in the Gaza Strip, Egypt, and Lebanon.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to open the congress on Thursday, with diplomats, including Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, faction leaders and academics expected to attend.

About 2,580 members are taking part in the event, including 1,600 in Ramallah, 400 in Gaza, 400 in Cairo and 200 in Beirut, according to the preparatory committee.

The congress, which runs from Thursday through Saturday, will elect 80 members of the Revolutionary Council and 18 members of the Central Committee, with the numbers subject to change under the group’s internal bylaws.

Fatah Deputy Secretary General Sabri Saidam said the group’s general congress is being held at an “exceptional moment” and with the largest participation in its history, despite Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip and political and field challenges.

“Today, Fatah members are meeting with the intention that Fatah remains present on the ground as everyone wants it to be,” he told Anadolu.

“For Gaza to be able to hold the conference amid this destruction is a major political and national message,” he added.

Fatah held its first congress in Damascus, Syria, in 1967.

The group held its second congress in Zabadani, Syria, in 1968, where it elected a new 10-member Central Committee and formed a Revolutionary Council. It held its third congress in 1971, its fourth in 1980 in Damascus and its fifth in 1988 in Tunisia.

The eighth congress is the third to have been held inside Palestine, after its previous meetings in Bethlehem in 2009 and Ramallah in 2016.

Political analysts say this year’s congress comes at a complex political and security moment, amid the fallout from the Israeli war on Gaza and escalation in the West Bank, raising questions about whether it can bring meaningful change to the movement’s structure or political program.

*Writing by Lina Altawell in Istanbul