Arab states warned off Israel deal

Palestinian leaders warned Arab states on Monday that any effort to normalise ties with Israel at the urging of President Barack Obama would deal a damaging blow to the quest for statehood.

The dispute over Israel’s role in the Middle East emerged as Fatah, the dominant faction in Palestinian politics, prepared to stage its first congress since a meeting in exile in 1989.

Exiles assembling for the meeting in the West Bank town of Bethlehem have demanded a robust stance against Israel, while activists within the Palestinian territories have sought to use the meeting as a launch pad for a more moderate approach to peace talks. Recovery of land and possessions lost in the 1948 war – known as the Nakba or catastrophe – ranks as an obsession for the exiles but is given a lower priority by their local counterparts.

“Normalisation of Israel’s ties with Arab countries before the occupation ends in the Palestinian areas is the last thing that the Palestinians should have to experience,” said Abu El-Izz Dajani, a former PLO ambassador who is running for a post in the Fatah leadership. “It is as dangerous as the Nakba, as dangerous as the 1967 seizure of the West Bank and Jerusalem.”