Global Arab Network | Fatah congress - Abbas keeps resistance an option

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Fatah congress - Abbas keeps resistance an option

Global Arab Network - - Adam Turner

Tuesday, 04 August 2009 16:25

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president opens first Fatah congress in 20 years with declaration that "resistance" remains an option.
Abbas made his comments to more than 2,000 delegates at the opening of Fatah's conference in Bethlehem, a three-day meeting seen by many as an opportunity to reform and rejuvenate the party.

"Although peace is our choice, we reserve the right to resistance, legitimate under international law," Abbas said in his speech on Tuesday.

"We will not stand helpless in the face of Israeli incursions."

The Bethlehem meeting, the first party conference in two decades, is expected to see Fatah tackle issues such as its ageing leadership and revitalise the party, largely paralysed by political infighting.

But ahead of the conference, officials denied members would revise the group's founding charter which, like that of its rival Hamas, calls for Israel's destruction.

"It will remain as is. It won't be subject to discussion," Azzam al-Ahmad, a senior Fatah leader, said.

The charter calls for armed struggle "until the Zionist entity is wiped out and Palestine is liberated".

But a draft of Fatah's new programme calls for new forms of resistance such as civil disobedience against the expansion of Jewish settlements and the separation barrier, which Israel says is for security, but which Palestinians denounce as a land grab.

The peace talks with Israel have been stalled for months, Fatah is backed by the West largely because of its willingness to negotiate with Israel.

The Fatah conference suffered a blow even before it began, with Hamas, which effectively rules the Gaza Strip, refusing to allow 400 Fatah delegates based in Gaza to attend unless Fatah releases hundreds of Hamas activists detained in the West Bank.

Zoughbi Zoughbi, a long-time Fatah member and activist, called the conference a "historical moment" none the less.

"Despite of all of that, I feel there is a message to convey to the whole world, that the Palestinian people are dedicated to the peace process," he said.

"Despite all the awkwardness and despite all the Israeli politics and policies in the occupied territories."

The last Fatah congress was held in Tunis in 1989, when the movement was under the leadership of Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian leader.

The conference also aims to elect a new central committee and a ruling council, in the hopes of giving more of a say to a younger generation that grew up fighting Israel's occupation of the West Bank. (Reuters, AFP, UPI)

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