Fatah member arrested after speaking out on being removed from office

The Palestinian Authority’s (PA) preventive security service arrested former spokesperson for the Jerusalem office of the Fatah movement last night, shortly after he gave a televised interview commenting on his removal from office days earlier.

Raafat Elayyan was arrested in his home in the village of Anata in the Jerusalem district of the occupied West Bank.

Earlier yesterday evening, Elayyan had appeared in a televised interview on the Palestine Today satellite channel to discuss a decision by the Fatah movement – the PA’s ruling party – to discharge him as its Jerusalem spokesperson on Saturday.

He was the second Fatah official to be removed from office over participation in a meeting attended by hundreds of local Fatah leaders on Saturday, which was dispersed by Palestinian security forces.

Former senior Fatah leader and lawmaker Jihad Tummaleh, who was also dismissed following the meeting, said on Facebook that the meeting was held to discuss “Fatah unity and awakening”.

Anonymous Fatah sources at the time said that the meeting was considered “illegal” and that its participants were accused of “delinquency” by Fatah’s Anti-Delinquency Committee.

According to Palestine Today‘s website, Elayyan clarified in the interview that while he was removed from office as Fatah’s official spokesperson in Jerusalem and that his membership for the upcoming seventh congress for Fatah had been revoked, he had not been discharged from the Fatah party altogether.

Elayyan told the network that he believed he was punished because he had always been supportive of Fatah unity and demanded that all discharged Fatah members be allowed back into the party.

“The disputes between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the discharged leader Mohammed Dahlan are not the only disputes within the movement,” Elayyan added.

He called the dismissal of Dahlan “illegal”, quoting a number of Fatah leaders, including Executive Committee member Azzam Al-Ahmad and Revolutionary Council member Kamal Al-Sheikh, as saying that Dahlan was never convicted of any charges.

Elayyan pointed out that dozens of Fatah leaders were discharged because they contacted Dahlan after he was discharged.