— National Democratic Assembly
In April 2021, Nasser Kidwa, Yasser Arafat’s nephew and a senior member of Fatah, announced the formation of the ‘National Democratic Assembly‘ (الملتقى الوطني الديمقراطي) electoral list to contest Palestinian legislative elections in May 2020. Fatah has accused him of orchestrating a rival splinter group and removed him from his position on its Central Committee. A few hours before the registration deadline, and after protracted behind the scenes negotiations, the list merged with Marwan Barghouti – another veteran Fatah leader currently serving a life sentence in an Israel jail – to produce the ‘Freedom‘ list.
The National Democratic Assembly called for reforming the national political system based on the rule of law and supports an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders. It pledged to improve livelihoods by strengthening economic ‘steadfastness’ and opposing Israel’s settlement enterprise. Its full political platform can be found here (in Arabic).