Middle East Monitor / March 12, 2021
The former head of Fatah’s security apparatus in Gaza has criticised the movement’s decision to dismiss prominent member Nasser al-Qudwa from the movement and its central committee. Mohammad Dahlan was himself dismissed from the organisation in 2011 following a power struggle with Abbas.
He left the occupied West Bank and is now based in the UAE. A Palestinian court convicted him in absentia on charges of corruption and sentenced him to several years in prison.
Dahlan is thus seen widely as a key rival of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who is also the leader of Fatah. The former official wrote on Facebook that Al-Qudwa’s dismissal contradicts the movement’s rules and regulations.
“It’s a new step in scattering Fatah’s capabilities and power, which it has not witnessed in its long history, this degree of tyranny, exclusivity and deviation from its traditions of diversity,” said Dahlan. “It is a decision that confirms the impossibility of accepting Mahmoud Abbas’s approach, which has become a real threat to the interests of our people, its unity, its cause, and an imminent danger to Fatah.”
He added that the time has come for the movement’s leaders, cadres and bases to rise up to face this “organised destruction by a spiteful and incompetent person who is a source of weakness for the movement and a cause of decline for its status and capabilities.”
A senior Palestinian official said in January that Dahlan cannot stand as a candidate in the upcoming presidential election because he does not have a clean criminal record.
