QADURA FARES CRITICIZES FATAH LEADERSHIP ON REFORM

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 JERUSALEM 000553 SIPDIS SIPDIS NEA FOR FRONT OFFICE. NSC FOR ABRAMS/SINGH/PASCUAL E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/27/2018 TAGS: KWBG PGOV PREL PTER IS SUBJECT: QADURA FARES CRITICIZES FATAH LEADERSHIP ON REFORM AND THE SIXTH CONGRESS REF: A. JERUSALEM 137 ¶B. JERUSALEM 265 ¶C. JERUSALEM 353 ¶D. JERUSALEM 454 Classified By: Consul General Jake Walles, per reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Summary. Grassroots Fatah leader Qadura Fares told Staffdel Diamond on March 25 that President Mahmud Abbas (Abu Mazen) is losing credibility because Palestinians see no progress on negotiations and no changes on the ground. He said imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghuthi is the only alternative to Abbas. Fares said he doubts Abbas has the will to make the Sixth Fatah Congress happen this year. He described a letter Barghuthi sent to Abbas and the Sixth Congress preparatory committee suggesting three separate Congress sessions held in the West Bank, Gaza and abroad. The letter recommends including 5,000 Fatah members drawn from a diverse participant base and urged an increase in the number of Fatah Central Committee (FCC) and Fatah Revolutionary Council (FRC) positions. Fares said the preparatory committee rejected Barghuthi's suggestions and wants fewer participants. End Summary. Fatah Leadership "Like a Corpse" -------------- ¶2. (C) At a March 25 meeting with Staffdel Diamond in Ramallah, grassroots Fatah leader Qadura Fares said the Fatah leadership is "like a corpse" and that there is less democracy within the movement now than in Yasser Arafat's time. Every night, he said, ARAFAT received delegations from all Fatah groups, including women, NGOs, syndicates, and imams, to listen to their concerns. In contrast, Fares said "Abu Mazen has no time for the people and is always traveling." For example, he said President Abbas has not visited Hebron since his presidential election campaign in ¶2005. Fares suggested a visit to Hebron by Abbas would be important for the one-third of West Bankers who live in the south. "It would be more useful for Abu Mazen to visit Hebron than Nouakchott," he added, referring to a recent trip to West Africa. Fares called Abbas' advisors "self-serving and a burden" and said Abbas has transformed Fatah into "a state of catastrophe rather than an active machine." ¶3. (C) Fares said "I'm fed up with Fatah reform, but there are no alternatives." He stressed that new leadership is the first step forward and suggested imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghuthi as the only alternative to Abbas. Fares said he prefers to see Barghuthi released as a result of a GOI deal with Hamas, likely in return for IDF solider Gilad Shalit, rather than through an agreement made by Abbas, to avoid connection to Abbas in Barghuthi's return to the Palestinian political stage. Not Optimistic about Negotiations -------------- ¶4. (C) Fares said Abbas is losing credibility because Palestinians see no progress on negotiations with the GOI and no changes on the ground. In Abbas' three years in office and PM Fayyad's nine months, Fares said no checkpoints have been removed. He added that Fayyad is "credible and professional," but will never be a real leader because he "does not have the credibility of a Palestinian national fighter. He added that Hamas is using the suffering of Gazans to their advantage by lumping Abu Mazen and PM Fayyad with Israel and the U.S. "I know we won't have peace this year," said Fares. "We need to maintain hope, but no one has hope in Abu Mazen," he added. Barghuthi's Letter to Abu Mazen on Sixth Congress -------------- ¶5. (C) Fares said he doubts Abbas will succeed in holding the Sixth Fatah Congress this year. If held, Fares said grassroots members must use the Congress to send the message that "we are open-minded" and willing to include a diverse array of Fatah members. Fares said opening up the Congress to a mix of participants is important, including elected Fatah committee members, former and current PLC members, youth, municipal council members, mayors, private sector actors, professional syndicate members, journalists, and academics. He said Barghuthi sent a letter to Abu Mazen and the Congress preparatory committee on March 17 (copy obtained by ConGen POL FSN) offering suggestions for the Sixth Congress, including that Fatah women must equal 20 percent of JERUSALEM 00000553 002 OF 002 Congress participants, Congress should include all freed Fatah prisoners who spent more than ten years in Israeli prisons, and Fatah should find a way to represent the 6,000 Fatah prisoners currently in Israeli prisons. Barghuthi wrote "it is important to have representatives from all sectors in order to unify the Fatah movement." ¶6. (C) Also in the letter, Barghuthi suggests inviting at least 5,000 Fatah members to the Sixth Congress, noting that the movement has grown exponentially since the Fifth Congress in 1989. Barghuthi recommends holding the Congress in three separate sessions in the West Bank, Gaza, and abroad to include all Fatah members, rather than in Amman or Cairo (the preference of many Fatah Old Guard members). He also urges an increase in FCC membership from 21 to 31 and in FRC membership from 120 to 250. Fares told PolOff that the Sixth Congress preparatory committee rejected Barghuthi's suggestions claiming his proposed number of Congress participants is too high. ¶7. (U) Staffdel Diamond did not have the opportunity to clear on this cable. WALLES