Senior Fatah officials meet to avoid poor showing in Palestinian elections — sources to ToI

A meeting was held over the weekend between aggrieved senior Fatah officials Hussein al-Sheikh and Jibril Rajoub, as the West Bank’s dominant Palestinian political party seeks to limit divisions ahead of elections scheduled for the end of the year, two sources familiar with the matter tell The Times of Israel.

Rajoub has been boycotting Fatah meetings since June, when the party’s chief, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, named Sheikh as his deputy — despite the fact that Rajoub received more votes than Sheikh during internal Fatah elections in May.

Sheikh was already serving as vice president of the PA, and the decision to name him deputy Fatah chief appeared to be part of an effort by the 90-year-old Abbas to consolidate power ahead of what is certain to be a grueling succession battle.

Sheikh has offered Rajoub the ability to maintain his role as Fatah secretary-general under his and Abbas’s leadership, but to date, the veteran Palestinian official has refrained from taking the offer, the two sources say.

The weekend meeting between Sheikh and Rajoub came days after the former held a meeting in Egypt with members of a breakaway Fatah faction headed by former PA Gaza security chief Mohammed Dahlan.

Dahlan’s faction is seeking to return to the party, but Abbas has largely resisted efforts to reconcile with him unless stringent terms are met, and the meeting in Egypt did not lead to any progress toward that end, the sources say.

Accordingly, Abbas’s circle has sought to prioritize healing other divisions within the party, recognizing that they are harming chances for a strong showing in the parliamentary elections scheduled for November 28.

As divisions remain, speculation has grown that Abbas will decide to again delay or cancel the elections, which have not been held for two decades.