PA shuts down embassy in Cairo to hold political conference

Backers of Abbas rival excluded from Fatah confab, despite Egypt’s push for inclusivity

After PA president gave non-committal response to visiting Egyptian official, members of Dahlan-led faction left out of major gathering where elections held for party’s top panels

A major gathering of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party went ahead this week without hundreds of members from a faction headed by a rival of the PA leader, despite efforts by Egypt to promote inclusion.

A spokesperson for the Fatah Reformist Democratic Faction, headed by the PA’s exiled former Gaza security chief Mohammad Dahlan, confirmed to The Times of Israel that members were not invited to the Fatah conference being held in Ramallah from Thursday to Saturday.

Abbas called the gathering for the first time in a decade in order to hold elections for Fatah’s powerful Central Committee and Revolutionary Council.

While Fatah has touted what it says is a Democratic process with a record number of participants, those heavily critical of Abbas were not included.

Egypt sought to encourage the PA leader to allow greater political representation, with a senior official from Cairo raising the issue during a meeting with Abbas in Ramallah last week, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Abbas’s response to the Egyptian request was non-committal, according to one of the sources.

Egypt has long pushed Abbas to democratize Fatah, arguing that full participation of members will allow for a revival of the movement stained by charges of corruption.

But Abbas has long withstood calls to reconcile with Dahlan, whom he had thrown out of the West Bank in 2011 following a bitter political dispute.

Dahlan moved to Abu Dhabi, where he became a close confidant of UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed and has been more freely able to criticize the PA’s conduct, particularly over the lack of general elections.

Abbas has blamed Dahlan for the subsequent rapid deterioration of the UAE’s ties with the PA.

The UAE was once one of the largest donors to Ramallah, but in recent years has preferred to independently finance aid projects for Palestinians, rather than go through the PA. Abu Dhabi spent more on humanitarian assistance for Gaza than any other country during the recent Israel-Hamas war.

Under Arab and Western pressure to reform the Fatah-dominated PA, Abbas announced in 2023 he would “grant amnesty” to any members expelled from Fatah.

However, the party has maintained that the amnesty requires each expelled member to file a letter recognizing their infraction of the party bylaws — something Dahlan’s faction members have refused to do because they maintain that they have not made any violations.

While representatives of Abbas met with members of Dahlan’s Reformist Democratic Faction in recent weeks, the sides were unable to reach a compromise. Abbas allies rejected the Dahlan supporters’ request to file a joint application to have their general Fatah membership reinstated.

Reformist Democratic Faction spokesperson Dimitri Diliani told The Times of Israel that Abbas is violating Fatah’s own charter by holding the conference on such terms.

“The gathering taking place in Ramallah does not qualify to be called a Fatah Conference. All efforts to hold a Fatah conference failed due to the president’s insistence on continuing with his autocratic regime,” he said in a statement.

In addition to Ramallah, satellite gatherings were also held in Beirut, Gaza City and Cairo, with over 2,500 total delegates taking part.

The Egyptian gathering was held at the Palestinian embassy in Cairo, with the diplomatic mission meant to serve tens of thousands of Palestinians shuttered for the political event. Holding the conference in Egypt allowed for the participation of members who were released over the past two years in Israel-Hamas hostage-prisoner deals.

In an announcement of the closure, the embassy offered a phone number for those seeking emergency services.

A Fatah spokesperson issued a statement defending both the party’s conduct toward the Dahlan faction as well as the decision to shutter the entire embassy in order to hold the conference there.

“We affirm that the position of the [Fatah] movement’s leadership and that of President Mahmoud Abbas has been clear and publicly declared for years. Furthermore, this position is not contingent upon any specific visit, mediation effort, or request from any external party,” the Fatah statement said, referring to the party’s policy regarding the return of exiled members.

“During the Emergency Arab and Islamic Summit held in Egypt in November 2023, President [Abbas] explicitly announced the [Fatah] movement’s decision to grant amnesty to all individuals who had been expelled on the grounds of organizational infractions. This decision stems from a deep commitment to preserving the movement’s unity and reinforcing its national and organizational cohesion,” the statement said.

“Moreover, the Fatah movement has officially outlined the approved mechanism for implementing this decision. This mechanism requires any individual subject to an expulsion order to submit a personal letter and an individual application to the relevant organizational bodies, which will then review the request and render an appropriate decision. Indeed, a number of cases have already been processed in accordance with this mechanism. Consequently, several members have returned to the party, with some now serving as full members or candidates at the ongoing 8th Fatah conference.”

“Conversely, the Fatah movement has repeatedly affirmed its refusal to engage with any specific faction or political current within its ranks on a collective basis, including those associated with the supporters of Mohammed Dahlan,” the Fatah statement continued. “The movement maintains that any such matters must be addressed exclusively through established organizational channels and on an individual basis, rather than being treated as a collective issue or a distinct political faction within Fatah.”

As for the holding the conference at the Palestinian embassy, the Fatah spokesperson noted that Cairo signed gave it the go ahead to hold the event in Egypt, while stressing that the approval was not tied to any discussions regarding the participation of Dahlan’s faction. The spokesperson did not address criticism of a partisan political event being held at a diplomatic mission.

The Egyptian foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment.