
 
 
The Fatah  party headed by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, re-elected in the  fractured party convention in Bethlehem Saturday night, concluded all of  Jerusalem is a “red line” for the PA. 
"Fatah will continue to sacrifice  victims until Jerusalem will be returned, clean of settlements and  settlers," according to a Fatah “all-or-nothing” policy paper, which did not  distinguish between the part of the capital that was restored to Israel in the  Six-Day War in 1967 and the section that was recognized by the United Nations as  part of Israel in the 1949 Armistice Agreement. 
Abbas, who previously  has said he will not extend his term of office as head of the Palestinian  Authority, which Fatah leads, was re-elected unanimously for another five-year  term. He was the sole candidate who stood for the position. The de facto Hamas  government in Gaza prevented Fatah delegates from leaving the region for  Bethlehem, but several of them voted by telephone.
The convention, marked  by scuffles and mud slinging, is being extended to Tuesday as it tries to  rejuvenate itself following years of corruption, which opponents say remains  rampant.
Abbas warned at the opening of the convention that Israel faces  violence from the PA if it does not agree to its terms for a new Arab state on  the land of Judea, Samaria and Gaza. He claimed that attacks on Israelis are  valid under international law.
“Although we have chosen peace, we  maintain the right to launch an armed resistance, which is legitimate as far as  international law is concerned." he told approximately the 2,000  delegates.
At-Tayyib Abdul-Rahim, a member of Fatah Central Committee,  said following Abbas's re-election, “Fatah is still a liberation movement, and  since we have not achieved our goals, we have popular resistance.... If peace  efforts are thwarted, there will be no security, nor stability in the  region.”