Document: Official PA website says Fatah is responsible for Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades

IMRA ^ | February 26, 2004

[yonif]

Fateh's Revolutionary Council Convenes For the First Time in Three Years www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_e/ipc_e-1/e_News/news2004/2004_02/104.html

RAMALLAH, Palestine, February 26, 2004 (IPC + Agencies)-- The Revolutionary Council of the Palestinian Liberation Movement (Fateh) held its first of three meetings in the 23rd session in Ramallah City on Tuesday, after three years of the previous session caused by the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

The meetings were called by the Secretariat-General of the council, and the senior figures included the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, who is also the Chairman of the Fateh movement, as well as the Palestinian Prime Minister Ahamd Qurei' and members of the Executive Committee and the Revolutionary Council inside and outside the Palestinian territories who were able to attend.

The meetings were held upon request of the members of the movement to discuss the reforms inside the movement's ranks, as well as the justification of the movement's organizational structure and determining one reference point to it.

Several news reports talked also about discussions to disband the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of the movement, as Mr. Jibril Al Rujoub, national security advisor to President Arafat, pointed out that the revolutionary council would discuss the possibility of disbanding the Brigades, but Ahmad Ghonaim, one of Fateh's leaders, said that was highly unexpected. "The main problem with Fateh is not the resistance activists, but the disassembly that leads to the absence of responsibility among the movement's ranks," Ghonaim told reporters.

On his side, the former national security advisor, Mohammed Dahalan, said before the meeting that Fateh's worst problems is lack of the financial transparency and opportunities before the younger generation with reformist tendencies to take up positions of responsibility.

Most of the 130 council members have demand elections, which were impossible to hold in the shadow of continuous and daily Israeli offensive against the Palestinian people. The elections in the council are held every five years.

Mr. Hamdan Ashour, the Secretary General of the council, mentioned that 13 members of the Gaza Strip were banned from traveling to Ramallah in the West Bank by the Israeli occupying forces, after refusing to issue them permits to cross to the West Bank.

Ashour told media outlets that "the gathering members will discuss a lot of ideas presented before the council in order to solve the problems of the movement, which some people see they would not be solved except after holding the sixth general meeting, which will be seriously discussed during the council's meetings."

Furthermore, Sakher Habash, a prominent figure in Fateh, expected that the council would approve forming a preparatory committee of the Fateh leadership to prepare for the general conference of the movement, to work on uniting the political, organizational and struggling points of view among the members of Fateh.

The last general conference of the Fateh movement was held in Tunisia in 1989, where a Central Committee was elected and included 19 members, to which two additional members; the late Faisal Al Husseini and Dr. Zakariya Al Agha, were added to raise the total to 21 members.

Five of the Central Committee members died until now, including Salah Khalaf and Hayel Abdel Hamid, who were assassinated by the Israelis in Tunisia, in addition to the death of Faisal Al Husseini, Sob'hi Abu Karsh and Khaled Al Hassan.

[yonif]

It is not some offshoot or loosely linked terror organization. IT IS PART of the Fatah and the PLO terrorist groups, headed by Yasser Arafat.

[yonif]

Ping.

[Ben Hecks]

To pretend that Arafat is not a terrorist makes us look like fools. The PLO, Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, Jemiah Islamia, Abu Sayyaf and dozens of other groups are all part of the same jihad brotherhood intent on destroying civilization as we know it.

[tet68]

Of course it is as we have always known.

I loved this part.

elections, which were impossible to hold in the shadow of continuous and daily Israeli offensive against the Palestinian people.

Some how the Israelis have managed countless elections when the very buses used to get to the polls are subject to terror bombing, Palestinian whining is pathetic.