Fatah Elects New Central Committee and Revolutionary Council

The Palestinian group Fatah concluded its eighth General Conference late Saturday in Ramallah. Election results for the Central Committee and Revolutionary Council were announced Monday afternoon. Sixty candidates competed for 18 seats on the Central Committee, Fatah’s highest leadership body.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was unanimously voted chair before the vote. Dr Nasser al-Qudwa, the only Central Committee member to boycott the conference, told Al Jazeera that Abbas engineered the meeting to produce the outcome he wanted.

The results replaced half the incumbent members of the Central Committee. All but one of Gaza’s representatives were replaced; Ahmed Hilles remained the sole Gaza representative. Majed Faraj, Abbas’s intelligence chief, won a seat on the Central Committee.

Yasser Abbas, son of the Palestinian president, was also elected to the Central Committee despite having held no prior leadership position in Fatah. Palestinian detainees secured three seats. Marwan Barghouti, imprisoned by Israel for more than 20 years, received the highest number of votes among all candidates.

Zakariya al-Zubaidi, who escaped from Gilboa prison in 2021 before being recaptured and later freed in a prisoner exchange, also won a seat.

Four hundred fifty members competed for 80 seats on the Revolutionary Council. Winners were described as dominated by party insiders. No representative from Fatah outside Palestine was elected to the Central Committee for the first time. The new Central Committee includes several technocrats and Palestinian Authority officials, such as Ramallah Governor Laila Ghannam and head of the PA’s General Personnel Council Musa Abu Zaid.

A significant proportion of winners are current or former PA employees, especially in the security sector. Kifah Harb, who ran unsuccessfully for the Central Committee, told Al Jazeera that members had concerns about the organizational committee but said they must stand by the outcome.

Fatah leaders described the congress as proof of commitment to reform through some personnel changes and a younger demographic. On Monday, after the results were announced, Fatah issued a statement outlining general policy lines but provided no specific answers on next steps.