Speaking under a giant mural of a smiling Yasser Arafat, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas used a rally commemorating the deceased Palestinian leader Sunday to call the approaching U.S.-sponsored peace summit an "historic opportunity" and to suggest to supporters that Palestinian statehood is within reach.
In a forceful speech on the third anniversary of Arafat's death, Abbas also lashed at his rivals, repeated there could be no dialogue with Hamas Islamists who violently took over the Gaza Strip until what he described as the "black coup" was reversed.
Tens of thousands of flag-waving Palestinians turned out at the Muqata presidential compound in Ramallah, a West Bank city long a Fatah bastion, to remember the iconic late leader, show their support for Abbas and shout their condemnation of Hamas.
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"These forces of darkness will not be able to hijack our history or close the windows to our future," Abbas said at the rally, referring to Hamas, which routed his Fatah faction in the Gaza Strip last June and opposes his peace efforts with Israel.
"There are those who stabbed our democracy and preferred the military coup to the path of national dialogue," Abbas said. "Hamas cannot erase Arafat's achievements," he added.
With a Mideast peace conference expected to convene in Annapolis, Maryland at the end of this month, Abbas said the Palestinians were working with Arab nations and the international community to make it a success.
"We see this conference as a historic opportunity to open a new page in the history of the Middle East based on the establishment of our independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital," he said.
Along with statehood, Abbas said, Palestinians sought the "return of Arab land occupied in (the 1967 Middle East war) and peace for "us and the Israelis and the peoples of this region."
Though he saved his most strongly worded criticism for his Palestinian rivals, Abbas also criticized Israel, calling its West Bank separation fence the "ugly separation apartheid wall" and saying Palestinians remained committed to removing all settlements and checkpoints in the West Bank.
Abbas gave no indication in his address whether progress had been made in narrowing differences with Israel, with whom the Palestinians are expected to draft a joint document that will serve as the basis for the Annapolis conference.
"We reiterate to you, Abu Ammar, and our people that we are adhering to our national principles," Abbas said, using Arafat's nom de guerre.
They included, he said, a "just solution" to the issue of Palestinian refugees, the release of Palestinians prisoners held by Israel and the uprooting of Israel's West Bank fence, settlements, outposts and military checkpoints.
Arafat, hailed by Abbas as a symbol of Palestinian unity, founded the secular Fatah in the 1960s, leading the Arab fight against Israel before signing an interim peace deal in 1993.
That agreement broke down in botched talks over a final accord. Palestinians again took up arms in 2000. Abbas enjoys broad foreign support, but his strength is in doubt given the rift with Hamas and Israel's West Bank grip.
Arafat died in a French hospital on November 11, 2004 after being shunned by Israel and the United States as an obstacle to peace.
The rally will be followed by another in Gaza on Monday. Spreading out the commemorations over three days appeared to part of the attempt to harness Arafat's legacy for Abbas' upcoming challenges.
In Gaza City on Sunday, Hamas police beat several students who tried to hold an Arafat memorial near their high school, a witness said. Hamas police arrested a teacher at a similar incident elsewhere in central Gaza, a school official said. Both witnesses asked not to be identified, fearing retribution from Hamas forces. Hamas denied that report.
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