Dahlan: ‘Palestine should restore national unity on division anniversary’

Dismissed former Fatah member and leader of the Democratic Reform Current, Mohammed Dahlan, has asserted that the 15th anniversary of the Palestinian division should inspire Palestinians to learn from its repercussions and catastrophic political, social and economic consequences on Palestinians and their cause.

“The current stage carries many internal and external threats to the Palestinian cause and people and requires national unity to devise a consensual strategy to confront these challenges, starting with the unity of the Fatah movement and rebuilding it on democratic foundations as a pillar of the national project,” Dahlan posted on Facebook.

“The responsibility to fulfil the thought and spirit of the founding leaders requires us to do everything possible to end the division, unite the nation and continue the national project until its realisation and if they were among us, they would not compromise in the face of division, and its repercussions on the people and the cause,” Dahlan concluded.

Fifty-nine-year-old Dahlan was expelled from Fatah’s ruling body in 2011 on allegations of plotting to overthrow Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and has been living in exile in the UAE since 2012.

He was the former head of the Fatah-dominated Preventive Security Force in the Gaza Strip.

In December 2019, Turkey added Dahlan to its most wanted terrorist list, with a $1.7 million bounty on his head, due to his alleged involvement in perpetrating the attempted military coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government on 15 July 2016, in cooperation with followers of the exiled Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who remains in the US.

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