Al-Ahram: Amira Howeidy reports from the Palestinian National Conference (Damascus)

In the most unlikely place -- a ramshackle "tourist" complex on the outskirts of the Syrian capital -- a large congregation of Palestinians from refugee camps, resistance factions and the Diaspora gathered to deliver a message.

It was a reminder of Palestinian "constants": that the right of more than five million refugees to return to their Palestinian homeland is inalienable; that Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine; that all lands occupied must be liberated; and that the right to resist Israeli occupation by all means is enshrined in international law.

In the 60th anniversary year of the Palestinian Nakba, or catastrophe -- when Israel was created on occupied Palestinian land in 1948 -- one would have imagined that understanding of the Palestinian question would have come a long way, and that the above "constants" should be indisputable, as they were six decades ago. But the impressive Palestinian assembly -- 1,200 people -- in the Sahara complex north of Damascus last week was evidence that the opposite is true.

"The National Palestinian Conference to uphold the rights of the Palestinian people" -- a three-day conference from 23-25 January organised by a number of factions, including Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine- General Command (PFLP-GC) -- was a manifestation of a Palestinian front divided on what these constants are.

Here in Syria, which is viewed as an "extremist" state by the US and Israel, the "resistance camp", consisting of the above factions amongst others, sent a message of defiance to the other side of the Palestinian divide now known as the "Oslo group" of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah faction.

According to Talal Naji, one of the conference's main organisers, the event was aimed at "confronting" the dangers that threaten the Palestinian cause, which he listed as: transferring Palestinians from the occupied territories; expansion of Israeli settlements; US-Israeli settlement agreements; "and the imperial project". Current secret negotiations between the PA and Israel are believed to be focussed on finessing significant concessions on the Palestinian side, including giving up the refugees' right to return.

After Hamas's surprise victory in the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections, it became the first faction to compete with Fatah in running Palestinian affairs in a national unity government. A power struggle in Gaza last summer between the two factions resulted in Hamas's takeover of the Strip, which Abbas refused to recognise. An immediate siege was imposed on Gaza as Israel and the international community, in addition to the PA, demanded that Hamas quit Gaza, which the movement refused to do on the solid grounds that it was democratically elected by the Palestinian people.

The eight-month siege was partially broken last week when Israel stopped all energy supplies to Gaza, sinking the coastal strip's 1.5 million inhabitants into darkness. As a result, thousands of starved and angry Palestinians destroyed parts of the Egypt-Gaza border fence and stormed to the Egyptian side of Rafah to buy food, medicine and other basic necessities denied under the siege.

The border breach took everyone, including Hamas, by surprise, and it also boosted the Islamist movement's popularity and saved it from the stigma of failing in Gaza, much to the chagrin of Israel and Abbas. The timing of the Damascus conference appeared perfect when it coincided, by chance, with Gazans breaking through at Rafah. The Damascus conference was originally planned ahead of the US-sponsored Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, in December, but Syrian authorities bowing to Saudi pressure decided to postpone it.

According to Naji, all Palestinian factions were invited to the conference. Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) boycotted it, however. Yet Hamas's political bureau chief, Khaled Meshaal, stressed that the conference was not occasion to enhance division between his movement and Fatah.

"We, here, are not the Palestinian opposition," he said. "We are part and parcel of Palestinian legitimacy and the national movement." He added that Hamas is committed to "unconditional" dialogue with Abbas under Arab patronage. He also called on the Egyptian government to disregard the 2005 Egypt- Gaza border crossing agreement between the PA and Israel, arguing that since Cairo was not part of the agreement it doesn't have to recognise it. Instead, a new realistic agreement between the Palestinians and Egypt should be devised.

The 2005 agreement places European Union monitors on the Egyptian-Gaza border and equips it with cameras that relay all movement at the crossing to Israel. It doesn't give the Palestinians the right to control the border, which Israel had closed most of the time until Hamas took over the Gaza Strip last June.

Meshaal defended last week's border breach saying that the Palestinians have been under siege for months and that, "we can't blame them when they want basic needs met." Israel's decision to stop supplying Gaza with energy last week was opportunity for Meshaal to draw world attention to the plight of the Gazan population under Israeli's siege. "The crisis in Gaza didn't start with Israel cutting off electricity," he said, "It only exposed it."

"Gaza is the biggest prison in history and the time has come to put an end to this, even if Israel resumes full energy supplies," Meshaal said. Despite its decision to "disengage" from Gaza, Israel continues to control every aspect of life in the Strip. The Arabs, said Meshaal, are capable of breaking the siege by issuing a resolution to that effect from the Arab League. The PA also has the choice of stopping negotiations with Israel, he argued.

Echoing his demands, Ramadan Shallah, Damascus-based secretary- general of the resistance movement Islamic Jihad, urged the Palestinian president to quit negotiations. "I want to ask our brothers in Ramallah [headquarters of the PA], what are you negotiating about? Do you want a Palestinian state?" The "disaster", he argued, is that the PA wants to trade Palestinian land for a state. "We in Islamic Jihad announce here that our position gives priority to liberating the land -- all of it; then after that the Palestinians can decide for themselves what they want," he said.

In clear reference to Abbas's negotiations with Israel, Shallah said: "Palestine is not a house for anyone to sell." Islamic Jihad doesn't recognise the Oslo Accords and refused to participate in the 2006 legislative elections in Gaza and the West Bank because it considers such elections an outcome of an agreement it rejects. "I support Meshaal's call to cancel the border agreement and I add, cancel Oslo too," Shallah said. Since the signing of Oslo in 1993, he explained, Israel constructed housing for half a million Israelis on occupied Palestinian territory.

With its scathing attack on Abbas and the PA, it was unclear how the conference might bolster attempts to form a united Palestinian front. It also didn't offer a clear vision on how Hamas will manage the future of Gaza under current conditions.

According to Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy chief of Hamas's political bureau, "this conference is a message to all the Palestinian people, including Abbas, that our cause is very clear, and our constants related to liberating our land haven't changed." This liberation will happen through direct resistance and via the political umbrella of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), he told Al-Ahram Weekly.

But how will the PLO achieve national unity when Hamas is isolated and while the internationally recognised PA in the West Bank ultimately refuses to speak with Hamas? "The problem between Fatah and Hamas existed before Hamas won the elections in 2006," Abu Marzouk said. "For the longest time there has been two political visions; two programmes and not one, adopted by two groups: one is with Oslo, the other is with the resistance. This division was only crystallised after Hamas won the elections."

Yet the gap between the two has only widened, with no end in sight. Isolated in Gaza, Hamas appears to be in crisis. Abu Marzouk begs to differ. "We're not the only ones in crisis. In fact, Abbas is in a bigger crisis as a result of the choices he made for himself." According to Meshaal, "no one can monopolise the Palestinian cause, whether it's Hamas in Gaza or Abbas in the West Bank."

And why doesn't Hamas leave government in Gaza and have the siege lifted? Meshaal is ready with a reply. If leaving government means that the problems of the Palestinians would end -- that the rights of the Palestinian people would be upheld; that corruption would end, and the right to resist would be protected -- "Hamas would immediately leave." "But give me the guarantee that the resistance would not be disarmed, arrested and their houses bombed," he said.

If there were other options bar resistance, "Why else did people vote for us?" Meshaal asked.



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