GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Fatah’s Central Committee held a meeting Sept. 27 headed by President Mahmoud Abbas, during which it announced that the movement’s seventh general conference will be held before the end of 2016.

Fatah, which has been leading the PLO since it was established in 1964 and the Palestinian Authority (PA) since its establishment in 1993, held its first general conference in Kuwait in 1962. The general conference is considered one of Fatah’s most important internal events, during which the movement’s internal situation is discussed and changes in its institutions and amendments to its political program are made in accordance with local, regional and international conditions. In addition, the movement’s internal elections are held during this conference in order to choose its new leader and the members of its Central Committee and Revolutionary Council.

Fatah held its sixth conference in 2009, and its seventh conference should have been held two years ago, in 2014. Article 43 of Fatah’s statutes stipulates, “The Central Committee calls for a regular session [of the general conference] once every five years. This session can be postponed by force majeure, following a decision by the Revolutionary Council [which represents the movement’s legislative committee].”

The Central Committee has finally decided to hold the conference, only a few month after a document was leaked in June. This document was said to have been addressed to the secretary-general of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council, Amin Maqboul, bearing the signatures of 47 out of the 81 members of the council. These called for holding an emergency meeting and specifying a date for Fatah’s seventh conference in order to settle the movement’s internal issues, while threatening to take action in the future should their request be left unanswered.