B. FATAH CADRES, LETTER OF RESIGNATION FROM THE MOVEMENT ADDRESSED TO PA PRESIDENT YASIR ARAFAT, N.P., 7 FEBRUARY 2004 (EXCERPTS).

On 7 February, the day before the Fatah Revolutionary Council was to meet to discuss convening its sixth general congress (the first in fifteen years), almost 400 Fatah cadres signed a letter addressed to Fatah chairman and PA president Yasir Arafat announcing their collective resignation from the movement in protest over the leadership's failure to introduce meaningful reforms and develop a coherent program for combating the Israeli occupation. The signatories of the letter were apparently middle rank members; according to several sources, they were members of the ““young guard”” who had long pressed for change. While the letter was downplayed by claims that some of the signatures were of dead people, many Fatah members, including senior officials, were said to agree with its content, objecting mainly to the timing and public presentation. As a result of the letter, the meeting was postponed. (It was finally held on 27 February.) The following excerpt, published on 9 February by the London-based pan-Arab daily al-Quds al-Arabi, was translated in Mideast Mirror the same day.