FINLAND & PALESTINE Proceedings of a Joint Workshop

pressed in many internal meetings and within the organizational
bodies like the Revolutional Council (RC) and the Central
Committee (CC) and of course more strongly at the grassroots
level. But setting the course of this agenda means challenging
the status quo.
Fateh is considered by most of secular and national political
movements and parties as the back bone of the Palestinian National
Movement, as pioneers in the revolution, Intifada and
negotiations. Most of the Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli Jails
are from the cadre of Fateh. Therefore, Fateh was not seen by
any means as an internal Fateh affairs but a public political affair
for all national movements. Henceforth, a number of public debates
and discussions took place to review the roots and explore
solutions for Fateh's crisis. In some occasions, major components
of the movement namely vision, structure, governing
body and a gap across generations in terms of ideology, missions
and pOSitions of the hierarchy has been debated. 1
Fateh led the struggle to achieve the independent decision. In
fact, since it was established it refused to be dictated to by any
party, Arab or otherwise, that aimed to achieve its regional
goals at the expense of pan-Arab interests. Fateh believes that
the Zionist movement constitutes the biggest threat against
not only the Palestinian national security but also against the
security of the Arab world. It also believes that a legitimate
Palestinian entity forms the most important weapon that Arabs
have against Israel.
Fateh confirmed also the inalienable rights of the Palestinian
people include the right to self-determination, the right of return,
the establishment of a sovereign state with Jerusalem as
its capital. It also launched the revolution that will inevitably
1 See PASSIA, 2005.
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