President Mahmoud Abbas opened his Fatah movement's first conference in 20 years on Tuesday, saying Palestinians sought peace with Israel but “resistance” would stay an option. “Although peace is our choice, we reserve the right to resistance, legitimate under international law,” the Western-backed Abbas said in a policy speech, using a term that encompasses armed confrontation as well as non-violent protests. Officials said a draft of Fatah's new program called for new forms of resistance such as civil disobedience against Jewish settlement expansion and a West Bank barrier Israel says is for security but which Palestinians see as a land grab. Crucially, the draft leaves open the option of “armed struggle” if peace talks with Israel fail and does not rule out a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood in the West Bank and Gaza Strip if peace negotiations remain at a stalemate. A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there would be no immediate comment on the speech. Fatah's 400 delegates who live in the Gaza Strip were banned from traveling to the city of Bethlehem for the conference by Hamas. A threat by Fatah officials to arrest Hamas members in the West Bank failed to persuade the group. Abbas said neither Hamas nor any other faction had the right to choose on its own what resistance should entail. “No one can decide alone. No one can lead the homeland to catastrophe. No one can take the decision and take us to where we do not want be,” he said, echoing his past criticism of Hamas suicide attacks which he had described as hurting the Palestinian cause. But he also cautioned that Palestinians would not give up a right to meet violence with violence, saying: “We will not stand helpless in the face of Israeli incursions.”
