"Fatah" Between the First Shot... and the Last Bullet!

The least that can be said is that "Fatah" today goes to its eighth conference amidst unprecedented existential challenges, which impose duties on the conferees commensurate with these challenges. The race today is for burdens, not gains. Before the ambitious and greedy, and those whose hearts and pockets have been won over, there are major tasks that cannot be solved by slogans, eloquent promises, or statements. Their test will not exceed a few days, when those who emerge from the ballot boxes find themselves facing mountains of tasks, responsibilities, and unanswered questions.Protecting the dignity of the families of martyrs, wounded, and prisoners, rescuing them from the scourge of hunger, destitution, and harsh living conditions, and helping people in refugee camps, villages, and towns ravaged by the claws of settlement in the West Bank, and responding to the concerns and pains of people in Gaza, should be at the forefront of the programs of those competing to serve their people. Slogans are worthless if not accompanied by actions; for life is the strongest weapon in confronting an enemy that practices genocide and displacement, and undermines the foundations of the state by imposing harsh realities that create an expelling environment, emptying the land of its owners.Today, "Fatah" is most in need of those who possess keen insight and sharp foresight. The purpose of holding the conference is not to replace names with names, but rather it is a station for evaluation and correction, mending the cracks in the surfaces, and injecting new blood into the veins of the movement, which is deeply rooted in struggle, making it capable of continuing to run on the path of the early pioneers who carried it on their shoulders in its early beginnings.Fatah cannot regain its role unless the Eighth Conference is a starting point for comprehensive national unity, ending the division, and establishing a genuine partnership in which the movement lays down its burden, so that all national factions can have the honor of holding its end to carry the stone of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the legitimate and sole representative of the Palestinian people.Fatah, as the locomotive of the struggle and the focus of hopes, must and can take the initiative to compensate for shortcomings and make up for what has been missed; through conducting reviews, correcting paths, rectifying policy deviations, restoring eroded trust in the movement's bodies and institutions, and addressing disputes among comrades. It is not enough for Fatah to be the owner of the first shot, but rather to be a shield that wards off the last bullet from its people.