Fatah official says movement needs to be mobilized for elections

Middle East Monitor  /  November 15, 2022

A senior member of the Fatah Central Committee has said that the movement needs “immediate and serious” mobilization if it is to be ready for elections in occupied Palestine. The reality, said Tawfiq al-Tirawi in an interview with Al-Mayadeen TV channel on Monday evening, is that Fatah is far from ready.

Unusually for a Fatah official, Al-Tirawi also made reference to the “injustice” inflicted on the Gaza Strip for many years. He laid the blame for this injustice on the Israeli occupation authorities and successive Palestinian governments.

Al-Tirawi has been the head of the committee charged in 2010 with investigating the death of President Yasser Arafat in 2004. He acknowledged recently that documents related to the investigation have been leaked.

“Everything that was leaked in the Abu Ammar [Arafat] assassination case are testimonies, not investigation records,” he told Al-Mayadeen. A computer containing everything related to the case was apparently hacked, including information about the investigation and the results of Russian laboratory tests. It is believed widely that Arafat was poisoned. “There has been no proof that we have any connection with any of the political leaders who poisoned President Arafat,” insisted Al-Tirawi.

He denied claims that he has been dismissed from the Fatah Central Committee. “I decided to suspend my attendance at Committee meetings. My membership is not frozen.”