Former PA Minister Hatem Abd Al-Qader: Fatah Should "Reactivate the Option of Resistance"

Following are excerpts from an interview with Hatem Abd Al-Qader, former PA minister for Jerusalem affairs, which aired on Al-Quds TV on July 13, 2009.

Hatem Abd Al-Qader: We must generate a contrived separation between the Fatah movement and the PA. The Fatah movement, as an organization, as a national enterprise, and as a liberation movement, must be detached from the PA, and must have its own platform, agenda, and strategy, which are based on the principles of Fatah.

Interviewer: It must have resistance too...

Hatem Abd Al-Qader: Yes, its own resistance as well.

Interviewer: Who in Fatah makes the decisions with regard to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades?

Hatem Abd Al-Qader: The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades are still the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. Perhaps, due to local political circumstances, the Brigades’ operations have been disrupted. But let me tell you: the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades are out there, and they are ready to respond to the call of the Fatah movement in any future confrontation with Israel.

[...]

The Fatah movement refuses to be transformed into a political party. We will staunchly oppose any attempts to transform Fatah from a national liberation movement into a political party. Fatah has not yet completed its journey or accomplished its goals. It is still a national liberation movement, which relies on resistance, as well as on politics. Hence, in the foreseeable future, Fatah must remain a Palestinian national liberation movement, until the Palestinian people accomplishes all its goals – freedom, independence, the creation of a state, with Jerusalem as its capital, and the return of the refugees. Without this, the Fatah movement cannot become a political party. It will remain a liberation movement, whose strategy relies on resistance.

[...]

Whoever thinks that it is possible to reach peace with the Israelis in light of the present circumstances and the [political] constellation in Israel is definitely deluding himself. We are not yet qualified to sign a peace agreement with Israel, because, first of all, we don’t have any power. Secondly, the rift among the Palestinians has intensified Israel’s rampage with regard to the Palestinian issue.

[...]

I believe that there is no alternative but to restore Palestinian unity and cohesion, and to reactivate the option of resistance against the occupation.