Fatah kicked off its first congress in 20 years on Tuesday with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas urging his party to seek "a new start" and admitting a litany of past errors.

Abbas also said the Palestinians, who are seeking their own independent state, were committed to the peace option but still had the right to "legitimate resistance".

Listing where Fatah went wrong, Abbas mentioned "the impasse in the peace process, some of our attitudes which the public rejects, our weak performance, our losing touch with the pulse of the street, and our lack of discipline."

These faults, he said, were to blame for the long-dominant party's upset defeat at the polls three years ago and its routing from the Gaza Strip in 2007.

"Our attachment to the option of peace does not mean that we will remain impotent in the face of the destructive violations against the peace process," Abbas added.

"Just as we affirm our endorsement of the option of peace, we maintain our right to resort to legitimate resistance as guaranteed by international law."

A declaration of war?

Abbas accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of torpedoing the peace process by refusing to freeze settlement activity.

Israeli Information Minister Yuli Edelstein responded by calling the congress "a declaration of war," YNet News reported.

"They explicitly say that they support continuing the armed struggle," he told YNet.

"If anyone should talk about settlements endangering peace, the most violent and extreme settlement is the Palestinian state, which will be established and run by the 'moderates' speaking today at the Fatah conference," Edelstein said.

Fatah, which is at the helm of the Palestinian Authority, exercised undivided power among Palestinians before it was trounced by the rival Islamist Hamas movement in the 2006 election.

Long-standing Hamas-Fatah tensions boiled over in June 2007 when the Islamists seized control of Gaza after a week of deadly street clashes, confining Abbas's power base to the occupied West Bank.

'A platform for a new start'

Abbas, who has led Fatah since the 2004 death of iconic Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, urged the 1900 delegates to use the three-day congress as "a platform for a new start, consolidating our struggle to achieve our main goals: liberation and independence."

The congress in the West Bank city of Bethlehem is due to adopt a new political programme and replace some of the top leaders of Fatah. It is only the sixth conference since the party was founded by Arafat in the late 1950s.

Internal disputes which have significantly weakened the movement flared up in recent weeks, with Fatah secretary general Faruq Kaddumi publicly accusing Abbas of having plotted with Israel to get rid of Arafat.

Over the years, Fatah has moved away from the armed struggle and its pledge to eradicate Israel but has been losing credibility as peace efforts have failed to produce tangible results.

Fatah fights for peace

In a document obtained by AFP, Fatah expresses its determination to regain the initiative in peace efforts.

But it also reiterates the Palestinian leadership's refusal to resume peace talks until Israel halts settlement building in occupied east Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The document stresses that under international law, the Palestinians have the right to resist occupation, "including through armed struggle" and reaffirms Fatah's refusal to recognise Israel as a Jewish state.

Preparations for the meeting had been marred by Hamas's refusal to allow some 400 Fatah delegates to leave Gaza for the West Bank, although Israel gave the green light for about 500 delegates who live abroad to travel to the congress.

AFP

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