Israel Matzav

Fatah conference to call for talks with Iran, condone violence

Fatah's conference, which will be held on Tuesday in Bethlehem, will reaffirm the terror group's rejection of Israel as a Jewish state, and will condone violence against Israelis.

Fatah should not recognize Israel as a Jewish state and needs to start a strategic dialogue with Iran, according to a proposed draft of an updated political platform to be discussed at its general conference this week.

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which were leaked to the Arab press yesterday, also calls for Fatah supporters to use civil disobedience against Israel, including limited violence against settlements, as well as against what it calls "the Judaization of Jerusalem." Peace talks will halt until Jewish construction in the West Bank is halted, the draft proposes.

Fatah, the draft proposes, should weigh alternatives to negotiations with Israel, including the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state along 1967 lines or the creation of a binational state, should talks with Israel fail.

The leaked parts also mention Iran, saying, "We must work toward opening a strategic channel to Iran" and calls for intensifying international efforts to boycott Israel and prevent normalization with it as long as the occupation continues.

I guess if Barack Obama can 'engage' with Iran, Fatah can too. It will be interesting to see how the 'moderate' Arab countries react if Fatah actually does negotiate - let alone reach an agreement - with Iran.

Meanwhile, Hamas has vowed to arrest any Gazans who attend the conference upon their return.

"Anyone who sneaked out from Gaza illegally and with arrangement with the Israeli occupation would be arrested and sent for trial upon return," China's Xinhua news agency quoted Hamas Interior Ministry as saying in a statement.

Tens of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party members, despite a Hamas ban, succeeded in leaving for the West Bank over the past couple of days to attend Fatah's sixth general conference, due to be held in Bethlehem on Tuesday.

The majority of more than 400 invitees in Gaza was unable to head for Bethlehem as Hamas deployed checkpoints along roads leading to Erez crossing point in northern Gaza Strip.

Some of Fatah activists, including women, disguised in Bedouin and Islamic cloths to avoid the checkpoints or to cross to the Israeli side of the borders via other commercial crossings.

Ihab al-Ghussein, a spokesman for the ministry, said those who have left "had violated the (Hamas) government's decision which bars their travel, so they are outlawed and would be put before court."

Keep that in mind the next time someone accuses Israel of 'imprisoning' the 'poor Palestinians' in Gaza.

Arutz Sheva adds:

The proposed Fatah platform in effect puts on ice any chance for negotiations over the establishment of a PA state. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has said that talks with the PA must be predicated on its acceptance of Israel as the home of the Jewish people, which would provide an obstacle to an Arab plan to flood Israel with foreign Arabs.

Instead, Fatah, headed by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, is digging in its heels for a new PA state based on the 1949 Armistice Line borders that existed until 1967 as well as a “just solution” for several million Arabs living in foreign countries and claiming ancestry in Israel. It also demands that they be compensated.

I'd say the 'negotiations' were 'on ice' long before this.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:51 AM