DAMASCUS, 24 January 2008 — Palestinian leaders opposed to peace talks with Israel sent a conciliatory message to Mahmoud Abbas at a conference hosted by Syria yesterday, but told the Palestinian president not to compromise on “national rights.” Hundreds of delegates from the Islamist Hamas and Islamic Jihad, leftists and other Palestinian figures attended the Damascus meeting.
“The goal is to solve the current state of Palestinian division through a comprehensive national dialogue that preserves unity,” a communique issued by the conference said. Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June after routing forces loyal to Abbas and his secular Fatah faction in fighting that killed dozens of Palestinians.
Abbas has demanded that Hamas relinquish its hold on the Gaza Strip and accept early presidential and parliamentary elections before resuming a dialogue with the Islamist group. Hamas, whose leader Khaled Meshaal addressed the Damascus meeting, has rejected those terms.
“No one has authorization to give up Jerusalem, the refugees’ right of return or any of the historic rights,” the conference declaration said. “Resistance against the Zionist occupation is the main form of struggle to achieve liberation.”
Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Shallah said splits between Hamas and Abbas’ Fatah faction played into Israel’s hands. “We cannot talk about a strategy without achieving national reconciliation first. The struggle over power only relieves the Israelis of their responsibilities toward the people they occupy,” Shallah told the delegates.
“This is a meeting of rights and resistance,” Meshaal told the conference. Meshaal denounced the blockade imposed by Israel on the impoverished Palestinian territory, branding it a “tragedy and an immoral crime.
Talal Naji of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), which is organizing the conference along, said Palestinians should “amplify the resistance against Zionist occupation.” The Damascus conference is aimed at “healing Palestinian divisions,” Naji said.
But in the West Bank political capital of Ramallah, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) slammed the conference as a “carnival” organized by Damascus to bolster its influence in the region. Syria “committed a grave error in putting together this conference that has been transformed into a stage for diatribes against Palestinian leadership and government,” a PLO statement said.
“With this carnival and its slogans, Syria is looking to assume a regional role and appear as an actor in the Palestinian equation,” said the PLO, of which Hamas is not a member. Fatah along with two other mainstream PLO factions — the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine — are boycotting the conference.
