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In a TV interview, Samir Al-Mashharawi, a former senior Fatah official, characterized PA President Mahmoud Abbas' rule as "capitulation," and said: "He has violated all Fatah's principles and mottos, as well as its political and revolutionary ideology."
Following are excerpts from the interview, which aired on Al-Ghad Al-Arabi TV on January 3, 2015.
Samir Al-Mashrawi: [Fatah] is making a sharp transition toward what I call the "capitulation phase," which began after the death of Yasser Arafat. The Presence of Yasser Arafat at the helm of Fatah, along with the senior leaders, served as a safety valve, and as a guarantee that we would never lose our national directions, and that all options would remain open, including the option of Intifada, resistance, and struggle.
In Arafat's era, there was always this ambivalence… Even when he was obliged to condemn an operation from time to time, at the next opportunity, you would hear him say: "Millions of martyrs march toward Jerusalem." The [1996] tunnel uprising, the Al-Aqsa Intifada, with all its manifestations… The rule of the current president is characterized by "capitulation," as I call it.
In my view, Abbas turned the movement into his own personal domain. He has violated all Fatah's principles and mottos, as we as its political and revolutionary ideology. When President Mahmoud Abbas describes martyrdom operations as "despicable," and says that he will not permit another Intifada as long as he is in power, he is overstepping the boundaries of Fatah and its fundamental principles.
[…]
Ever since the current president came to power, defeats have been raining down on us. We have lost control of the PLC, of the municipalities, and of the Gaza Strip. We no longer have any political future in sight. Fatah has lost its fighting spirit – the rhetoric of Abbas does not include struggle, Intifada, resistance, or anything. Take the Goldstone Report, and the documents about the negotiations that were leaked to Al-Jazeera. Don't all these scandals necessitate at the very least an investigation, if not an actual trial? All he does is to declare war on Muhammad Dahlan.
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