http://www.daralhayat.com/arab_news/levant_news/11-2004/Item-20041127-7ba02252-c0a8-10ed-0004-aa02bbaa5993/story.html

Abbas starts his election campaign on the basis of the nationalist  "Thawabit" (fixed principles/ red lines) that Arafat laid stress on in his last speech to the Legislative Council.

Occupied Jerusalem, by Saida Hamad.

(translation, Helena Cobban, Nov. 28, 2004.)

Al-Hayat, Nov 28, 2004

Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), the head of the PLO and Fateh's candidate in the elections to the head of the Palestinian authority, effectively launched his electoral campaign within the institutions of  Fateh by announcing his commitment to undertake unceasing efforts to reach an outcome dealing with all final-status issues, that is the issues of Jerusalem, the refugees, borders, and his view that the last speech of the late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat in front of the Legislative Council is "a Commandment that must be implemented".

Abu Mazen said this in a speech he gave to the members of the Revolutionary Council, the highest organizational framework in the Fateh movement.  [In the speech] he laid what can be considered the "foundation stone" for a political program that aims to mobilize the support of the Fateh movement and to gather it around him as a necessary first step before he enters into the broader political campaign to win the votes of the majority of Palestinian voters on the day of polling, next January 9.

And Abu Mazen stressed that is holding onto the nationalist "thawabit" (fixed principles) in order to realize Palestinian goals [and these principles are] "the creation of a the independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and a just and agreed-upon solution to the refugee question according to [UN General Assembly] resolution 194, to whose implementation we hold fast" -- as they were laid out in Arafat's last speech.  Abu Mazen noted also that he is committed to carrying out the recent decision of the Revolutionary Council and to "carry out the rest of the decisions that the Central Committee started to implement"-- this, in a clear nod to his goal of turning "a new page" in the conduct of Fateh's internal relations.

[HC note:  Fateh's Central Committee is its highest body, with around 10-plus members.  The Revolutionary Council is much larger and is supposed to monitor the work of the CC.  In actual fact, Fateh is a highly decentralized not to mention extremely chaotic body... Hence the references above to Abu Mazen's need to get the full backing of Fateh itself before he launches his broader politicval campaign... ]

And according to what the Palestinian media said about the meaning of the speech, Abu Mazen focused on the central issues that seem to be wrong with Fateh's internal house as he works to reorganize it on a democratic basis.  And as the first of these issues [he expressed] his support for holding the sixteenth General Conference of the movement next August, in order to hold there complete elections inside the movement's institutions including the Central Committee, whose members have not been subject to election by the Revolutionary Council for more than 15 years now.

And these issues are considered to be among the essential issues that allowed the General Secretary of of the Higher Movement Committee [in the West Bank] Marwan Barghouthi to withdraw from nominating himself in the elections for the head of the PA, and opened the door to his candidacy for the position of President of the Fateh movement, trusting in the extremely broad popularity that he has according to a secret poll that Fateh recently undertook of Palestinian public opinion.

And informed Palestinian sources confirmed to Hayat that Abu Mazen is working to revitalize and reunite the ranks of Fateh-- in light of the threats of splitting that appeared when Barghouthi started thinking of standing as a candidate to the presidency of the PA-- by undertaking consultations about the possibility of appointing Barghouthi as a Vice President [of the PA?] in preparation for the campaign that Fateh is planning to undertake, to press for Barghouthi's release from his Israeli prison. An Israeli court had given him a a sentence of life imprisonment five times over for the role he played in the Palestinian intifada.  And the sources said that Barghouthi received a letter to this effect [i.e., about the Vice-President thing] from one of the Palestinian officials, which was given to him by the Minister without Portfolio Qadoura Fares during the meeting he had the day before yesterday with Barghouthi in the prison.

And Fateh's Revolutionary Council started to prepare Abu Mazen's election campaign by forming a committee to be headed by CC member Tayeb Abdel-Rahim that will include members of the RC and the "Higher Movement Committee" and the leaderships of Fateh in the Palestinian regions and areas.

The deputy head of the RC, Moeen Bsaiso, made clear in his press statements that the [new] committee will work out a formula for the political and social progrtam of the Fateh candidate, "on the basis of all the decisions taken by the Palestinian National Councils which defined the thawabit and the means of working in this stage."

Meanwhile, Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi [who'll be the candidate of the leftist parties... He's a physician, a dedicated social activist, and cousin to Marwan and to the late Palestinian Communist leader Bashir Barghouthi] is getting ready to announce his candidacy in the election, officially, tomorrow, Monday, at a press conference that will be held simultaneously in Jerusalem, Gaza, and Ranmazllah by video-conference.  Participating in it will be Dr. Haidar Abdel-Shafei [the rightly venerated dean of the Palestinian leftists in Gaza... also, the person tho headed the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid Peace Conference in 1991], and Ibrahim Dakkak [another veteran Palestinian leftist], and also Mustafa Barghouthi himself.  They will be launching his campaign as the candidate of the "Palestinian National Initiative."

And sources close to Hamas confirmed to Hayat that it will announce its official position toward the presidential elections during the week ahead.  These sources said that, "All possibilities have been proposed from a boycott to supporting an independent candidate."

These sources gave a quick glance to the possibility of "not opposing" the Fateh candidate, Abbas, in these elections while awaiting the holding of general elections [i.e., presumably to the Palestinian Legislative Council] whose timing has been described by reliable sources as coming not later than next May 15th.