| Delegates gather for Fatah congress | |||||
Members of the Palestinan Fatah movement are gathering in the West Bank city of Bethlehem for the first party congress in two decades. The meeting is expected to see Fatah adopt a programme that distinguishes it from its rival Hamas, and implement changes to the way that the party, which is largely paralysed by political infighting, operates. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, is expected to endorse a two-state solution but keep open the option of "armed struggle" with Israel. 'Liberation' struggle While Fatah hopes the conference will rejuvenate the movement, officials denied that members would revise the group's founding charter which, like that of Hamas, calls for the 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................. |