Abbas reelected as head of Palestinian Fatah movement

By Qais Abu Samra

RAMALLAH, Palestine

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was reelected head of the Palestinian Fatah movement on Tuesday at Fatah’s seventh general congress in the West Bank city of Ramallah, according to official Palestinian news agency WAFA.

The news agency reported that Abbas had been "unanimously" reelected as head of the movement.

"President Abbas was elected unanimously at the first session of the congress, maintaining him as the movement’s leader," congress spokesman Mahmoud Abu al-Haija declared at a press conference held shortly afterward.

Fatah held its first party congress in 1964 in Damascus, where it endorsed armed struggle as a means of ending Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory.

Three years later, the movement appointed members of its Central Committee, while Yasser Arafat was made the group’s first spokesman.

In 1968, Fatah convened its second congress -- also in the Syrian capital -- where it elected new members of the 10-seat Central Committee and established its Revolutionary Council.

Fatah’s third congress was held four years later in Damascus amid deadly clashes between factions of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Jordanian army -- events that later came to be known as "Black September".

In 1980, Fatah held its fourth congress in Syria during which the Soviet Union was acknowledged as a "strategic ally" of the movement.

In 1988, the movement held its fifth congress in Tunisia, where its Central Committee was expanded to include 21 members.

Following a 21-year hiatus, Fatah convened its sixth congress in 2009 -- 16 years after the signing of the Oslo Accords -- in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.