12-12-07, 9:50 am

Hundreds of militants attended Friday and Saturday Hadash (Peace and Equality Democratic Front Communist Party of Israel) movement's seventh annual conference in Nazareth, including representatives of the Palestinian Authority. A PLO envoy in the event read out a message from Palestinian Authority, President Mahmoud Abbas, saying that 'Hadash is the true, most prominent leadership of the Palestinians in Israel, and we trust you to continue influencing the political discourse in Israel, as you have done in the past.'

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who spoke at the event's opening ceremony, said that he would not 'apply for membership in the Zionist movement.' Erekat referred to the situation in Gaza and the West Bank, saying that 'the Hamas revolution will end once a Palestinian state is established, but if no such state is founded, the situation in the West Bank may become worrying.'

One of the PA's representatives read out a message from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in which the leader stressed that the Palestinian people would not be able to regain their rights without first achieving internal unity. 'Hamas will realize that in order to renew negotiations, the Palestinian people had better be united again,' Abbas wrote. Jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti also sent a message to the convention's participants. According to Barghouti, 'This convention takes place against the backdrop of an ongoing attack on the Arab population in Israel, and some believe that you are a strategic threat that must be eradicated. 'Your remaining in the homeland is the greatest and most important national treasure for you and the Palestinian people. Your struggle for national rights and your effort, alongside the progressive Israeli camp, to end the occupation is beyond measure,' he added.

'We here, at the seventh Hadash convention, declare loud and clear that we are in favor of the Palestinian people, we are in favor of the legitimate Palestinian leadership,' exclaimed Hadash chair MK Mohammed Barakeh, drawing cheers from the crowd. Barakeh, who is a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Israel, said Hadash would not drop its policy of two states for two peoples. 'We won't toss our principles on the ash heap of history,' he said.

The Communist Party's secretary general, Mohammed Nafa, said that he supports any 'organization that resists the occupation' and that those fighting for liberation are entitled 'to use any means they see fit' to resist the occupation. 'Those who bomb Bint Jbail and beyond Bint Jbail cannot wonder there is bombing in Haifa and beyond Haifa,' he said.