At the opening of Fatah's sixth general assembly Tuesday morning, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that his people must persist with peace negotiations with Israel "as long as there is a tiny bit of hope." He added that Palestinians must not mar their "legitimate struggle with terror."
Nonetheless, the PA president accused Israel of denying its commitments. According to Abbas, the Palestinians and Israel reached a US-brokered understanding which included east Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley and parts of the Dead Sea, "but now the Israelis are trying to deny this and create facts on the ground in Jerusalem, claiming Jerusalem is united under their sovereignty."
On rival faction Hamas, the PA president spouted condemnations, calling the group "revolutionaries" and "men of darkness." Hamas wrested control of the Gaza Strip from Abbas's Fatah-dominated PA in June 2007.
Abbas also said at the conference that the Palestinians will continue to investigate the cause of former PLO leader Yasser Arafat's death. Fatah's last conference was held in 1989 in Tunis, under Arafat's leadership.
Senior Fatah official Jibril Rajoub said his organization will never abandon the option of armed struggle. "Resistance was and is a tactical and strategic option of the struggle... part of Fatah's policy" which Israel must acknowledge, he said.
Former terrorist Zakaria Zubeidi, a senior member of the Al Aksa Martyrs' Brigades who was released from prison in return for a pledge not to engage in terror activities, said Israel has no desire for peace and that the Palestinians must ready themselves for the possibility that "it is war that Israel wants, and not peace."
The only Israelis expected to attend the conference were MKs Ahmed Tibi and Taleb A-Sanaa (UAL-Ta'al) and Muhammad Barakei (Hadash).
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