ZOA: No Palestinian statehood

The Zionist Organization of America launched an effort to get Condoleezza Rice not to promote Palestinian statehood.

The ZOA published a full-page advertisement in the New York Times and other newspapers a month before the U.S. secretary of state convenes a conference aimed at creating a Palestinian state.

It outlines in two tablets what the ZOA says are the “Ten Commandments” of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Party. The “commandments” quote what the ad purports to be the Fatah constitution’s call for armed struggle against Israel and its rejection of Israel’s existence.

“Before discussions begin at the November conference, Abbas must first change his pro-terrorist and genocidal constitution against Israel, and fulfill the Palestinians’ commitments under the Oslo and road-map agreements – including arresting terrorists, confiscating terrorist weapons, and ending the incitement of hatred and murder in the PA-controlled media, mosques, schools and youth camps,” the ad says.

The ad comes as two members of the U.S. Congress, Reps. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the minority whip, have introduced a non-binding resolution calling on Abbas to revoke the offensive language in the alleged constitution.

Experts on Fatah say they have been unable to track such a document. In an interview with Americans for Peace Now, Nathan Brown, an expert on Palestinian legal issues at George Washington University, says the document originally appeared on www.fateh.net. That Web site is no longer active.

Brown says it is unclear that it was a genuine Fatah Web site or that there is an actual Fatah constitution. Fatah’s current site, www.fateh.ps, does not have the document in question.

Brown says Abbas does not have the power to revoke a constitution; that would fall to a party congress. The movement is in the process of convening such a congress, he said.