A major gathering of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party went ahead this week without hundreds of members from a faction headed by a rival of the PA leader, despite efforts by Egypt to promote inclusion.

A spokesperson for the Fatah Reformist Democratic Faction, headed by the PA’s exiled former Gaza security chief Mohammad Dahlan, confirmed to The Times of Israel that members were not invited to the Fatah conference being held in Ramallah from Thursday to Saturday.

Abbas called the gathering for the first time in a decade in order to hold elections for Fatah’s powerful Central Committee and Revolutionary Council.

While Fatah has touted what it says is a Democratic process with a record number of participants, those heavily critical of Abbas were not included.

Egypt sought to encourage the PA leader to allow greater political representation, with a senior official from Cairo raising the issue during a meeting with Abbas in Ramallah last week, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Abbas’s response to the Egyptian request was non-committal, according to one of the sources.

Egypt has long pushed Abbas to democratize Fatah, arguing that full participation of members will allow for a revival of the movement stained by charges of corruption.

But Abbas has long withstood calls to reconcile with Dahlan, whom he had thrown out of the West Bank in 2011 following a bitter political dispute.

Dahlan moved to Abu Dhabi, where he became a close confidant of UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed and has been more freely able to criticize the PA’s conduct, particularly over the lack of general elections.

Abbas has blamed Dahlan for the subsequent rapid deterioration of the UAE’s ties with the PA.

The UAE was once one of the largest donors to Ramallah, but in recent years has preferred to independently finance aid projects for Palestinians, rather than go through the PA. Abu Dhabi spent more on humanitarian assistance for Gaza than any other country during the recent Israel-Hamas war.

Under Arab and Western pressure to reform the Fatah-dominated PA, Abbas announced........

© The Times of Israel