RAMALLAH: Israeli Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz on Sunday called the Fatah platform outline to be voted on at the movement sixth convention taking place this week in Bethlehem a "declaration of war against Israel."
"The draft version for Fatah's meeting is a declaration of war against Israel," Katz said during a Likud ministers' discussion ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting.
"Fatah's unwillingness to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, the demand for a withdrawal to the 1967 borders and a complete right of return for Palestinian refugees is tantamount to wiping out the State of Israel from existence."
He demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu present a clear stance on the matter.
Netanyahu said that Israel must wait for the Fatah convention. "As this is only a draft, we must wait and see what will happen at the convention itself - and respond accordingly."
Netanyahu has conditioned the establishment of a Palestinian state upon recognition by the Palestinians of Israel as a Jewish state.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak holds a similar stand. "We will wait and see what will happen in the conclusion stage rather than at the stage of preparations for the Fatah convention," Barak said Sunday ahead of the cabinet meeting.
The convention is to discuss the status of peace talks with Israel. According to a leaked draft "political plan," the Fatah convention will reiterate Fatah's commitment to the "armed struggle" against Israel as one of the options to achieve an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Fatah is also expected to reemphasize its opposition to Israel's demand that it be recognized as a Jewish state.
The draft plan calls for the Palestinians to unilaterally declare an independent Palestinian state on all the territories that were captured by Israel in 1967 if the peace talks failed.
The Fatah delegates are also expected to discuss the faction's future political and security strategy, as well as demands for implementing widespread reforms in the aftermath of its defeat by Hamas in the January 2006 parliamentary election.
Some delegates have also sought the issue of late President Yasser Arafat's death to be included in the conference agenda, especially after Fatah leader Farouk Qaddoumi accused Abbas of conspiring with Israel to "assassinate" Arafat in 2004.
Some 2,260 delegates have been invited to attend the three-day convention, which is meeting for the first time in two decades.
Hundreds of Fatah officials from different Arab countries, including Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Egypt, arrived in Bethlehem over the weekend to attend the long-delayed conference.
A handful of Fatah operatives from the Gaza Strip also arrived in the city, saying they managed to avoid Hamas checkpoints disguised as laborers and women.
More than half of the delegates have been appointed by President Mahmoud Abbas loyalists, a move that has been sharply criticized by the faction's "young guard."
The young guard expressed skepticism that the convention would pave the way for the emergence of a young leadership.
They accused veteran "old guard" Fatah leaders of hampering efforts to select new grassroots leaders to the faction's Central Committee, which is considered its most significant institution.
Some of the young guard said they decided to drop their candidacy for the committee's 21 seats after realizing that their chances of beating wealthy veteran Fatah leaders were very slim.
Hatim Abdulqader, a senior Fatah official who represents the movement's young guard, said he and many of his colleagues had determined that it would be impossible to run against veteran officials who have unlimited resources and funding.
Instead, he said, most of the younger members were hoping to be elected members of the 120-seat Revolutionary Council, the second most important institution in Fatah.
The council, Abdulqader noted, will play a significant role in monitoring the work of the newly elected Central Committee, which will almost certainly be dominated by old-timers loyal to Abbas.
"Too many old guard leaders are competing for the 21 seats of the Central Council," Abdulqader said. "They have the money and resources to defeat their young rivals." Fatah officials said over 500 members were competing for seats on the Revolutionary Council, while another 150 were running for the Central Committee.
On Friday, dozens of Fatah members from the Gaza Strip announced that they would boycott the conference because of the continued "hegemony" of old-guard leaders.
