Dahlan: PLO is corrupt and negligent

Sacked Fatah member Mohamed Dahlan expressed anger at “the state of negligence and corruption that the Palestinian Liberation Organisation is suffering from” accusing its leaders of living in luxurious palaces abroad instead of returning to rule the nation.

In posts on Facebook, Dahlan said that 51 years after the PLO’s inception, Palestinians find themselves facing dictatorship, corruption and a policy of disregard for the Palestinian people.

He accused the current leadership of ceasing to follow the PLO’s system and tradition, citing as an example the “violation” committed against Fatah’s Central Committee and the PLO’s Executive Committee through “the humiliating way in which the Executive Committee’s Secretary was appointed, in defiance to all national and democratic standards and all laws, rules and regulations.”

“The appointment of a secretary for the Executive [Committee] deviated from all characteristics that should be in the figure, a figure whose characteristics and qualifications should be up to our people’s struggle and our national cause,” Dahlan said.

He said that the figure appointed by Mahmoud Abbas has dwarfed the position, accusing him of “spending half of his life plotting against the martyred leader Faisal Al-Husseini”.

“It is about time that we rise up together” so that the Palestinian state’s institutions will be established, a permanent constitution will be drafted and a Palestinian parliament will be elected to represent Palestinian people everywhere, he said.

He demanded a clear and comprehensive political platform and a national partnership that does not exclude or marginalize any Palestinian faction on political or personal-interests grounds.

Dahlan called for restoring the role and heritage of the PLO “before it is too late” and opening the door for political and non-political accountability through a comprehensive examination of what has happened in the past ten years.