FATAH LEADERS PINNING THE BLAME AND TAKING NEXT

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 JERUSALEM 001267 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/18/2017 TAGS: KPAL KWBG PGOV PREL PTER IS SUBJECT: FATAH LEADERS PINNING THE BLAME AND TAKING NEXT STEPS Classified By: Consul General Jake Walles, Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (S) Summary: Fatah leaders are seeking to isolate HAMAS following the swearing-in of the new government under PM Salam Fayyad. Marwan Barghuti issued a statement from jail to endorse PA President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen)'s decision to dismiss the national unity government (NUG) and form a new government. The situation within Fatah remains unsettled, as Mohammed Dahlan has become the focus of criticism for the HAMAS victory in the Gaza Strip, and Fatah-affiliated factions are operating independent of Fatah Central Committee in parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. End Summary. FATAH LEADERS DENOUNCE HAMAS -------------- ¶2. (S) Azzam al-Ahmad announced June 19 that the Fatah Central Committee (FCC) will conduct no business with HAMAS until it "ends its military coup in Gaza and restores the situation to normal." At the same time, PA President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) appointed Zakariya al-Agha (a PLO Executive Committee member from Gaza) to form a committee to supervise Fatah activity in the Gaza Strip. Fatah officials have privately confirmed to Post that they do not want the remaining Fatah leaders to depart Gaza and to see Gaza emptied of Fatah. In his first public statement since HAMAS took control of the Gaza Strip, National Security Advisor Mohammed Dahlan referred to HAMAS's seizure of the Gaza Strip as an occupation. ¶3. (S) On June 18, jailed West Bank Fatah leader Marwan Barghuti issued a statement in support of the emergency government formed by PM Salam Fayyad. Barghuti's statement included nine points condemning HAMAS's actions in the Gaza Strip and calling for new leadership of the PA security forces (PASF). He also called for an emergency committee to reform Fatah, including holding the long-delayed Fatah Sixth General Congress. (NOTE: The text of Barghuti's statement at para 10. END NOTE.) ¶4. (S) Sources close to Barghuti say that Fayyad approached Barghuti before his June 18 swearing-in and requested that Barghuti endorse the new government, which Barghuti agreed to do. These sources also report that there is an effort to persuade other jailed Palestinian leaders to issue similar statements to bolster support for Fayyad's government. ANTI-DAHLAN SENTIMENT SIMMERS, THEN BOILS -------------- ¶5. (S) Fatah officials from the West Bank and Gaza Strip have publicly called for a Fatah investigation into the events of the past week, but privately many of them blame Dahlan. Members of the Fatah Revolutionary Council (FRC), including Barghuti, Jibril Rajub, and Barghuti advisor Ahmad Ghunyam, believe that removing Dahlan from power will help rebuild Fatah's image and strengthen the faction. Barghuti's call for the dismissal of all security leaders in the Gaza Strip in his public statement supporting Fayyad's government was broadly interpreted as a strike at Dahlan. Gaza Fatah official Ahmad Hillis - a long-time rival of Dahlan - urged Fatah leaders in Gaza not to leave, hinting at criticisms of Dahlan and other security chiefs who left the Gaza Strip with their families before or during the HAMAS take-over. ¶6. (S) Abbas appointed Secretary General of the Presidency Tayyib Abd al-Rahim to head an investigative committee. The committee consists of Fatah officials and security chiefs. The committee is an internal Fatah group, not an official PA body. RENEGADE FATAH GROUPS ASSERT AUTHORITY -------------- ¶7. (S) In reaction to HAMAS control of the Gaza Strip, some Fatah-affiliated militants have begun to act on their own authority to restrict HAMAS influence in the West Bank. Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades gunmen in Nablus raided the municipal offices and announced that HAMAS municipal council officers are no longer allowed to enter, leaving Fatah council members in charge. In Janin, al-Aqsa declared the HAMAS militant wing al-Qassam Brigades illegal prior to Abbas's declaration that HAMAS militias were illegal. ¶8. (S) Fatah leaders downplayed a group of anti-Dahlan Fatah members in Gaza who announced that they intend on June 20 to form a splinter group called "Fatah al-Yassir" (FaY). Khalid Abu Hilal, the leader of the new group, accused Abbas of being involved in a conspiracy and offered FaY as an alternative to mainstream Fatah. The new group's headquarters will be in Gaza, and the group intends to JERUSALEM 00001267 002 OF 002 organize underground in the West Bank to avoid IDF reprisals. Fatah leaders have told ConGen political specialist that Abu Hilal's Fatah membership was revoked when he accepted a job in 2006 as spokesman for the then-HAMAS-led Ministry of Interior, and they say that Abu Hilal and his group have been closer to HAMAS than to Fatah in recent years. These Fatah leaders say they do not expect FaY to draw away a significant number of Fatah members. COMMENT -------------- ¶9. (S) There is overwhelming demand within Fatah for an investigation into the failure in the Gaza Strip. General resentment against Dahlan - particularly among his Fatah colleagues - has eroded his political capital, and Dahlan's principal point of leverage at this stage is his relationship with the U.S. If Fatah leaders believe that the U.S. is no longer interested in working with Dahlan, we estimate that his political influence will wither. The selection of Tayyib Abd al-Rahim as the head of the investigative committee is fortunate for Dahlan, as Abd al-Rahim is considered a friend of Dahlan's. Dahlan has lost his base of power in the Gaza Strip and was discredited by HAMAS's rapid take-over. The FaY group has very little support from influential Fatah leaders and does not constitute a threat to the faction. Mainstream Fatah leaders discount Abu Hilal as a long-time HAMAS supporter who does not appeal broadly to Fatah members. We should be concerned if more prominent Gaza-based Fatah leaders - such as Ahmad Hillis - begin to undermine Abbas's management of the faction. Fatah-affiliated militant groups like the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades also continue to pose a threat to stability in the West Bank. TEXT OF BARGHUTI'S MESSAGE TO THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE -------------- -------------- ¶10. (U) From my dark, small prison cell, I address the great Palestinian people to do the following: ¶1. I condemn the military coup against the legitimate authority and its institutions in Gaza Strip. ¶2. I consider the military coup in Gaza as a serious threat to the unity of the homeland and a threat to the Palestinian cause and deviation from resistance and sabotage against the principle of national partnership. ¶3. I consider this coup as a threat to the democratic experience upon which HAMAS won in the elections. ¶4. I express full support to the decision to form a new government headed by Dr. Salam Fayyad with the hope that this government can enforce the rule of law and end the chaos and work to maintain the unity of the homeland, people and cause. ¶5. I reject and condemn any attacks against properties, institutions, individuals, cadres and leaders from HAMAS in the West Bank and I totally reject bringing and copying the painful images and scenes of the Gaza Strip into the West Bank. ¶6. I call on President Abbas who is the General Commander of Fatah to form a new leadership for Fatah in the Gaza Strip from the leaders who are in the Gaza Strip now. ¶7. The commanders of the security services must be discharged and new commanders must be appointed; the new commanders must have the ability to reform and develop the Palestinian security institution with all its branches on a professional basis so that it can assume its task to defend the homeland and citizens and the national project and the PNA institutions and to confront the occupation aggressions and to maintain public order and to enforce the laws and end the security chaos and end the armed presence phenomenon and the parades. ¶8. To form an emergency committee to lead Fatah, and this committee must consist of members capable of upgrading the movement and rebuilding its institutions and capable of holding the corrupt and incompetent accountable and capable of holding the Sixth General Conference immediately and defend the national project and the unity of the homeland, people and cause and to continue work in the national struggle to achieve the goals of our people in return, freedom and independence. ¶9. I call upon Ismail Haniyah to respond to the decision of President Abbas on discharging him and his government according to a legal and constitutional measure according to the Basic Law and to cooperate with the new government for the sake of maintaining what is left of the Palestinian legitimacy and to preserve the unity of the homeland, and the unity of the people and the cause. WALLES