The forgotten refugees and the Fatah conference

Fatah’s Seventh Conference last week carried several clear messages for Palestinian refugees. It is as if Fatah has reached the culmination of a historic path of blatant abandonment and denial of those who represent the core of the modern Palestinian revolution and the foundations of its national project.

Furthermore, the tragedy of the Palestinians in Syria was missing from the lengthy speech made by the head of Fatah, the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organisation — Mahmoud Abbas — and this absence could not be separated from the choice of Ahmed Majdalani to deliver the PLO’s presentation to the conference. This is the man who fabricated the victims’ narrative in Yarmouk Refugee Camp in Syria, and promoted the lies of the regime without the slightest hint of shame. The mere mention of his name provokes the anger of all Palestinians in Syria.

Other messages highlight the limits of President Mahmoud Abbas in dealing with the refugee issue, which has been abandoned at the bottom of his list of priorities for finding a fair and agreed-upon solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict. Whatever is decided, the solution must overlook the attempt to keep the refugees off the agenda when its practical aspects are discussed; it must also make sure that there is a clear understanding of the alienation of refugee communities by Fatah, which is becoming an army of employees for the PA. What is both strange and painful is the fact that the representatives of the “ruling party”, who came from refugee communities in order to participate in the conference, have contributed to this alienation. It seems that none of them even thought about protesting about the very small and symbolic representation of the refugees in the conference, the participants of which applauded the spread of Baathism.

This break from Fatah’s legacy was necessary in order to legitimise the abandonment of the Palestinian refugees’ rights and to cover up the catastrophes (and suffering) of those living in the stricken refugee camps who created Fatah and the other factions precisely so that they would not remain refugees for ever. How can those who gave the movement its national position and prestige now be displaced and their fate left unknown and uncared for? While this is going on, the spoils and positions gained at the expense of their sacrifices are being distributed to others.

At least seven Palestinian refugee camps have been destroyed in Syria and there have been thousands killed and wounded by the bombing, sieges and murderous detention of the Syrian regime and its acolytes. In addition, nearly one-third of the Palestinians in Syria have been displaced beyond its borders. Their “second Nakba” outdid the first in terms of horror and atrocities, but this was not enough to stir the emotions of those attending the conference to at least show a minimum level of solidarity and sympathy with the refugees, whose plight was lost amongst the speakers’ love letters to the Israeli enemies and bombastic challenges to Fatah’s political opponents.

When those with ownership of the cause are lost behind the machinations and calculations of those in authority, all the slogans become formalities and mere words; the PLO and its factions, meanwhile, become tools to serve the PA’s pet project. Meanwhile, the focus of the authority’s structures, duties and functions is to provide security and stability for the Israeli occupation. This forced equation was based originally on turning Fatah from a national liberation project for all the Palestinian people into a false witness to the liquidation of the national foundations and objectives on which the project was based.

Based on this, we can understand the implications and purposes of Fatah’s neglect of any programme or plan to improve the reality of refugee life. We can also see the meaning of the refugees being left to face their collective fate of fragmentation and displacement as they are scattered even further afield and have to worry about the new Nakba as the justice of their cause fades from memory.

Those who have seen how marginalised the refugees have become since the Oslo Accords are not surprised by the degree by which their cause has been let down by the latest incarnation of Fatah. Nor are they surprised by the inability of the other factions to formulate any other approach more reflective of the refugees’ needs and interests.

These miserable outcomes have put the refugees in an unprecedented situation, facing a shameful reality in which they lack any legitimate umbrella body and meaningful representation of the kind that they had in years gone by. Now they feel both frustrated and angry at having paid the highest price for the establishment of a “Palestinian Authority” with no real authority in a limited geographical area. Their anger is also aimed at the Arab Spring counter-revolutions responsible for the latest Nakba to affect them.

The mother of all Palestinian movements suffered many years of brutality at the hands of the Syrian regime, but it has become a movement whose president’s position coincides with the conspiracy theory created by the Assad regime, according to which it objects to killing its own people. It is neither wise nor moral for the silence in the face of he who caused the refugee crisis in Syria to be used as a political tactic to protect an authority founded under the guns of the Israeli occupation. Nor is it moral for the killing, torture and displacement of the refugees — alongside the people of Syria — to be allowed to pass unchallenged under the pretext of protecting higher Palestinian interests, when in reality this approach serves narrow personal and partisan interests.

The national umbrella body represented by the PLO has been lost; this much was obvious from Fatah’s Seventh Conference. The refugees can no longer hang their national and humanitarian issues on a body on the verge of collapsing.

Furthermore, the organisation is no longer fit to be a support for the Palestinian majority who are witnessing the emergence of a parasitical political class that gains its legitimacy from pleasing the Israeli occupation and serving regional Arab loyalties due to the political divisions of their factions. This has led to a decline in the collective confidence in all of the current factions and representative institutions, as well as indifference to the conflicts and reconciliation efforts, thus reflecting the fragmentation and deterioration of the Palestinian political infrastructure, including the Muhammed Dahlan faction which presents itself as an alternative to Abbas while it is still part of the corrupt organisation that is Fatah today.

Perhaps an examination of the positions and reactions of the refugees to the representation crisis would indicate that they are no longer calling for reform of the PLO and its crumbling institutional structures while it is so far from the concerns of the people and their suffering, and no longer has the ability or desire to regain the spirit of the national Palestinian project. One of the most important responses that carry the seeds of change in the refugees’ vision of their rights, roles and future is the launch of numerous civil, popular and political initiatives in their places of refuge. Through this, they express their rejection of the mock representation produced by the current institutions and try to come up with new ways and means to have their voices and aspirations listened to. Such aspirations can be developed to open up new horizons upon which there is no room for the exclusion or exploitation of the refugee issue.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.