On Monday afternoon, during the celebration of Hamas’s 22nd anniversary, Gazan Prime Minister Ismail Haniya said that gaining control of the Gaza Strip was “just a step toward liberating all of Palestine”.
Criticising Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the Obama Administration, Haniya said, “This movement liberated the Gaza Strip with the help of the militant factions. Brothers and sisters, we will not be satisfied with Gaza. Hamas looks toward the whole of Palestine.”
This is not the end of the “liberation” story. A day before the celebration in the Gaza Strip, Hamas political director Khaled Meshaal was in Tehran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad praised the “resistance” of Hamas and welcomed the “liberation project of the Palestinian lands from Israel”. Ahmadinejad said: Read the rest of this entry »
On Wednesday, the Palestine Liberation Organization indefinitely extended Mahmoud Abbas’s term as Palestinian Authority President and endorsed his refusal to negotiate with Israel unless it freezes all settlement construction. The extension of the term also applies to parliament members so that the Abbas Government can continue until new elections can be held in “the entire homeland.”
Hamas, which is in political control of Gaza, called the decision ”a confiscation of democracy”. The organisation’s spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum, said, “The Central Council is not elected and illegal, and all of its decisions are illegal and not binding on our people.”
The first comment from the Israeli front was “Come to the negotiating table.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman Mark Regev said: “We have just seen the Palestinian leadership place more and more obstacles in restarting the talks. I call upon the Palestinian side to stop making excuses and return to talks.”
So, here is Abbas’s welcome party! Now, there is more than the deadlock on the table for him. After using his last card, he is faced with stronger expectations for further steps! However, none of these expectations have changed!
In an interview with the Arabic service of the BBC in Arabic, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of conducting secret talks with Hamas, allegedly on the issue of a Palestinian state with temporary borders. Abbas also repeated that Jerusalem wasn’t truly interested in peace and added that “Washington isn’t pushing Israel enough to advance the peace process”.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum’s responsded, “The things that Abu Mazen [Abbas] is talking about never happened. We don’t negotiate with the enemy.” Barhoum accused Abbas of “putting his personal political failure on Hamas.”
Sunday is the anniversary of the symbolic Nov. 15, 1988 declaration of independence by the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
On the Hamas side, despite an earlier decision to keep schools funded by Fatah open on independence day, it was declared that schools would be shut.
Hamas also targeted Israel with words that claimed that “Israel was trying to find pretexts to cover up its previous war crimes with a preparation of another war.”
Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, director of Military Intelligence, announced last week that Hamas had launched a rocket some 60 kilometers into the sea. In other words, it meant that Hamas could hit Tel Aviv if this rocket was fired from the northern border of the Gaza Strip. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said:
These claims are part of the Israeli lies to justify a new aggression on the Gaza Strip.
Such threats are coming under the title of incitement and creating pretexts in order to commit more new crimes against Gaza and cover up the previous crimes that were committed during the last war.
However, another Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida said that he could not confirm or deny that the group had test-fired a rocket, “since such news come from the occupation [Israel].”
Tension between Fatah and Hamas increases. After Hamas’s decision to postpone the reconciliation talks in Cairo, the Fatah Party’s Central Committee has urged Fatah and Palestianian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas to issue a presidential decree on 25 October for presidential and parliamentary elections.
Fatah’s counter-plan is more of a rescue operation for the party itself, rather than for Abbas himself. The problem is now far more than Hamas’ declaration that they would not shake the hand of the “traitor”. Within the last two weeks, the furour over Abbas’ blocking of a UN vote on the Goldstone Report on Gaza has turned many in the West Bank against him. Faced with renewed corruption allegations against Fatah and a weakening position, Fatah elites are looking for a way to re-take the initiative.
The council must reach a decision to judge anyone who committed crimes against the Palestinian nation… I respect the majority opinion, and in the wake of everything that has happened, I have decided that the matter should be turned over again to the Human Rights Council!” Then, he defended his previous decision at the Council: “The decision to postpone [the vote] was a result of a consensus among the different parties at the Human Rights Council … and in order to secure the largest number of supporters for any resolution in the future.
Both sides continue to blame each other for political manipulation of the Gaza finding. Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior PLO official and adviser to Abbas, accused Hamas of exploiting the Goldstone Report to “damage national unity.” In return, Hamas warned the Palestinian Authority not to declare new elections unilaterally. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said that polls in the West Bank alone would further divisions between Palestinians.
Last week, Farouk al-Kaddoumi (pictured), a senior Palestine Liberation Organization leader, told al-Jazeera that Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas played a role in Yassir Arafat’s death in 2004. He said that he had protocols from a 2004 meeting between Israeli, American and PA representatives that clearly indicated a plan to poison Arafat. He added that former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Mohammed Dahlan, the former Palestinian security chief in Gaza, were involved in the plot.
The first reaction to the story came last Wednesday. Mahmoud Abbas suspended the operations of al-Jazeera in the West Bank. The Information Ministry stated that the station’s operations were halted until a court ruled on the case. Walid Al Omary, Al-Jazeera’s bureau chief in Jerusalem, said: “We are sorry about this decision, which we consider a violation of freedom of expression and freedom of the press in this country.”
On Thursday, Abbas rejected the accusations and said that “Kaddoumi claims to be in possession of five-year-old documents that prove (his allegations), so why did he not reveal them immediately?” Abbas added that the “lie” was aimed at torpedoing the sixth Fatah Party General Congress, scheduled to convene August 4. He continued, “He (Kaddoumi) knows full well that this information is false; he has released it to undermine the convention, but we are continuing with the preparations.”
While the Palestinian Authority was having problems with the Qatar-based station, the political risks of Abbas’s decision increased with the entry of Hamas into the discussion. Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, accused the West Bank government of trying to silence the media and “cover up what is going on in the West Bank”. Thus, the Arafat conspiracy theory was converted into a current political manoeuvre: Hamas is the “democratic” party seeking truth while its rival engages in “tyranny”.
The Second United Nations World Conference against Racism opened on Monday. Even before the first session was called to order, it was the politics surrounding the conference, rather than the proceedings, that were generating headlines.
The document before us is carefully balanced. It addresses key issues. It sets the stage for concrete action in a global campaign for justice for victims of racism worldwide.
However, the Secretary-General immediately shifted to the issue of the boycott declared by the United States, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Canada, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Israel on the eve of the conference: “I deeply regret that some have chosen to stand aside. I hope they will not do so for long.” Read the rest of this entry »
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On Wednesday, 
In an interview with the Arabic service of the BBC in Arabic, 
Sunday is the anniversary of the symbolic Nov. 15, 1988 declaration of independence by the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Last week, Farouk al-Kaddoumi (pictured), a senior Palestine Liberation Organization leader, told al-Jazeera that Palestinian Authority chief 
The Second United Nations World Conference against Racism 
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