JERUSALEM, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The ongoing Fatah congress shows that the Palestinian movement is still Israel's partner for peace negotiations, an influential Israeli newspaper said Friday in its editorial.

    In light of the sweeping support from more than 2,200 Fatah delegates for the group's new platform and its leader Mahmoud Abbas' speech, the conference sent Israel "an unequivocal message: The Palestinian national movement's strategic choice is still two states for two peoples," said the Ha'aretz daily.

    "Although Fatah's first convention in 20 years was held in the shadow of the Israeli occupation and an impasse in the peace process, the movement committed itself to the diplomatic option and the principles of the Arab peace initiative," said the editorial.

    Fatah "formally distinguished itself from Hamas," a more bellicose group that is blacklisted by Israel as a terrorist organization, it added.

    So far in the convention, Fatah rejected the demand to recognize Israel as the "state of the Jewish people," gave "an ugly hint" that Israel had murdered former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, and stressed that it would resort to armed struggle should current peace efforts fail to bear fruit.

    However, "the Palestinian public's avid interest in the convention, and the delegates' impressive attendance, testify that despite the numerous crises Fatah has undergone, it is still the leading popular political movement in the West Bank," said the newspaper, while urging the Israeli public and decision-makers to study the meeting's resolutions seriously.

    While noting that substantial mistrust remains between the Israeli government and the Palestinian leadership, the editorial argued that Fatah's approach to the peace process refutes the right-wing argument in Israel that "there is no Palestinian peace partner."

    Meanwhile, Ha'aretz pointed out that "the fate of the pragmatic national movement on the Palestinian side will depend largely on Israel's policy regarding the terms for resuming peace talks," including the issue of settlement construction freeze.

Special Report: Palestine-Israel Conflicts