As the Fatah movement prepares for its upcoming leadership convention, a senior group member says the event will be used to display Fatah's commitment to the armed struggle against Israel.The Palestinian Authority (as it stands today) is dominated by Fatah, that "moderate" alternative to Hamas.
Preparations for the convention, scheduled for August 4, are in full force at this time. During a series of preliminary meetings ahead of the event, senior Fatah official Rafik al-Natsheh said that the group will not be recognizing Israel.
'We will maintain the resistance option in all its forms and we will not recognize Israel," he said. "Not only don't we demand that anyone recognize Israel; we don't recognize Israel ourselves. However, the Palestinian Authority government is required to do it, or else it will not be able to serve the Palestinian people."
"I am certain that we will hinder all the traitors who wish to remove the resistance option from the movement's charter," Natsheh added.
al-Natsheh is admitting that the PA has to pretend to have peaceful intentions for political reasons, but in reality there is no change - Fatah is just as radical as Hamas, albeit less religious.
Fatah's constitution still calls for:
Complete liberation of Palestine, and eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence.The only way to change that would be during this upcoming conference. That doesn't look likely.
Some people, including Israelis, tend to say that the Fatah charter is irrelevant since it is subsumed under the PLO which has recognized Israel. But if Fatah is so irrelevant, why is this upcoming Fatah conference considered such a big deal to Mahmoud Abbas (who is the leader of Fatah as well)? Would it not be reasonable to ask him if Fatah is irrelevant?