In a surprise move (rumored a week ago by Fatah activists in Jerusalem), Sari Nusseibeh has thrown his hat into the ring of Palestinian high politics, and is running as a candidate for Fatah’s Central Committee.
Nusseibeh is regarded as a master politician, and the move as highly tactical.
He has also been denounced for what is generally called political “moderation” — though longer explanation would be required to describe exactly what that means in terms of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and internal Palestinian politics. He retreated tactically for years into his work of building up Al-Quds (Jerusalem) University, now behind The Wall in Abu Dis; he formerly taught philosophy at Bir Zeit University in Ramallah.
But, for those who want to ensure Fatah’s appeal to the “international community”, Nusseibeh would be an important choice.
If this Fatah Conference is an “Abu Mazen show” — as many delegates and media observers claim — then Sari Nusseibeh’s candidacy can be seen as a result of effective back-room lobbying. It is unlikely that he would have nominated himself without prior assurances of big support from Abu Mazen.
However, Palestinian analysts at the Bethlehem conference say that they doubt he has a reach chance among the general delegates to the conference. “He was the first person to sell out the Palestinian right of return, and he is a member of Fatah”, said one analyst, “while Fatah’s position remains that the right to return is an inalienable right of the Palestinian people”.
Nusseibeh himself did not join the active campaigning, and was not hopping from table to table or making and receiving promises at the Jacir Palace International Hotel in Bethlehem — or even at the Bethlehem Hotel where slightly less prominent delegates were staying.
I did see him walk, alone, with one colleague, out of the Terra Sancta meeting hall on Saturday afternoon, going towards a car park to leave.
Nusseibeh was appointed the PLO representative in Jerusalem following the death of Faisal Husseini in 2001, but his attempts at activism were blocked by Israel’s reprisal policy of suppressing Palestinian political activity in East Jerusalem that was developed in response to Palestinian attacks upon Israelis at the start of the Second Intifada. He was arrested several times, and he was beaten several times as well, including by student Fatah activists, then withdrew into academia.
He did foray back into politics briefly in 2003 when he and the former head of the Israeli secret service (Shin Bet) Ami Ayalon (who is definitely not an adept politician) launched an initiative — which Nusseibeh, at least, still supports — called “The People’s Voice”, whose aim is to mobilize grassroots support for a two state solution with a return to 1967 borders, Jerusalem as an open city, and a right of return of Palestinian refugees to a (demilitarized) Palestinian state, and Jews having a right of return only to Israel. The “Peoples Voice” is a sort of competition for the Geneva Initiative launched by Yasser Abed Rabbo, now Secretary-General of the PLO, and Yossi Beilin, an Israeli politician who headed the left-wing Meretz Party and who served as the Minister of Justice under Ehud Barak.
In a rare meeting with journalists a year ago, sponsored by Media Central a West Jerusalem organization that tries to help reporters better cover Israel, which we reported http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/69129 here, Nusseibeh announced that he had urged visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in a meeting organized by embassy officials to introduce Brown prominent Jerusalem Palestinians, to “think very seriously about stopping aid to the Palestinians”. [Nusseibeh’s wife, Lucy, is British.] The suggestion, aimed to shock but nonetheless apparently quite serious, ran at counterpurposes to Brown’s visit to the region, which was aimed in part at promoting an “economic road map” to help improve conditions for the Palestinian people living under occupation as a kind of political incentive. The British Prime Minister seemed surprised and taken aback by his suggestion, Nusseibeh said. So, he said, he was bringing his proposal to the media: “My suggestion is to stop this (the European aid)”, Nusseibeh said. “The money being donated is just being wasted”, he said: “It is just sustaining the occupation”. Nusseibeh explained that “The Israelis are happy because they do not have to pay the cost of the occupation. The Europeans are happy because they feel they are doing their part by providing economic assistance … and the Palestinians are happy because we have jobs and we feel free.”
But, Nusseibeh said, “Israel cannot have its cake and eat it, too … Israel cannot continue occupying us and having European Union funds and American dollars”.
The Fateh General Conference decided on Saturday that the first new Central Committee in 20 years will have 18 elected members, plus four Presidential appointees that will have to be gain approval by a two-thirds majority of the Central Council and also of its larger Revolutionary Council.
Voting is now expected to start on Sunday night, and continue into the early morning hours of Monday.
UPDATE: voting is now expected to start at 3 pm on Sunday, and end around midnight. Counting the results is expected to take many hours, and conference planners say the results will not be known until Tuesday morning.
There are now 103 candidates (one withdrew overnight) for the 18 seats in the Central Committee, and some 650 candidates for the Revolutionary Council.
A dramatically more relaxed and lively — even charismatic — Mahmoud Abbas was appointed party President by acclamation on Saturday afternoon, and there were outbursts of flag waving and debka dancing around the hall, despite the 65 votes against the proposal (out of more than 2000 attendees). His new style mesmerized Palestinian journalists and security men watching the scene in the Bethlehem Peace Center, which is also serving as a sort of minimalist press center, on Manger Square in front of the Church of the Nativity, where Jesus Christ is believed to have been born.
Bethlehem-based Ma’an News Agency reported today that “The total number of participants in the conference reached 2,325, including 25 Palestinians who were deported from Bethlehem during the siege of the Nativity Church in 2002“. This report can be read in full here .
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