[News] Hopes fade over Palestinian unity - Hamas accuses Abbas of lying

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Two articles follow

Unity elusive as ever after Abbas disparages 
Hamas in speech and Meshal accuses President of lying
12.10.09 - 10:57
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7351

Ramallah / PNN – Head of the Hamas political 
bureau Khaled Meshal has accused President Abbas of lying.

Exiled by the occupying Israeli administration, 
Meshal spoke from Syria when he derided the 
President’s speech of Sunday evening. Abbas was 
attempting to explain his position regarding the 
postponement of the vote on the Goldstone report. 
He said that international objections were destroying its substance.

However, Meshal described Abbas’s words as 
rhetoric and that he was lying in order to 
substantiate his position, while other parties 
have called to charge Abbas and the PA with 
treason. The President’s speech was peppered 
throughout with anti-Hamas statements.

Fateh is accusing Hamas of using the Goldstone 
report to justify postponing national reconciliation.

Given the statements of both Abbas and Meshal, it 
has become clearer that achieving unity is 
elusive, as it has been since the Hamas party won 
the Legislative Council elections in 2005-2006.

In the meantime, the PLO plans to stick with the 
amended date of new elections for President, and 
those legally in place for the PLC, of the 
twenty-fifth of January, 2010. Hamas rejects the plan.
****************************************
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/10/2009101281249528777.html
Monday, October 12, 2009
17:51 Mecca time, 14:51 GMT

Hopes fade over Palestinian unity

A reconciliation agreement between Fatah and 
Hamas, the rival Palestinian parties, has been 
delayed, following a bitter dispute over the 
Palestinian decision not to back a UN report on alleged Israeli war crimes.

The deal was to be signed on October 25, clearing 
the way for Hamas and Fatah to co-operate in 
rebuilding war-damaged Gaza by preparing for 
Palestinian elections in the first half of 2010.

Speaking of his disappointment to Al Jazeera on 
Monday, Mustafa Barghouthi - an independent 
member of the Palestinian parliament - said he 
believed Fatah and Hamas had turned a UN 
war-crimes report into a party-political issue, 
rather than into an honest attempt to seek justice.

The report, drawn up by a team of experts led by 
Richard Goldstone, a former South African judge, 
accuses Israel of using disproportionate force 
and failing to protect civilians during its 
bombardment of Gaza at the end of 2008.

Palestinian party politics

Barghouthi said: "What is most unfortunate is 
that the Goldstone report should have been a 
unifying issue for all Palestinians ... to hold 
Israel accountable for its war crimes.

"What we see is that both Fatah and Hamas are 
making this into a party-political issue. This should stop."

The two sides have been divided since Hamas, 
which commanded a majority in parliament, seized 
control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007.

Following the takeover, there have been rival 
Palestinian governments in Gaza and the West Bank.

With mediation from Egypt, the parties have been 
trying to broker a deal to reconcile and establish a power-sharing agreement.

But Hamas said on its website on Sunday that it 
was postponing the agreement because of a 
much-criticised decision by the Palestinian 
Authority (PA), led by President Mahmoud Abbas, 
to delay action on the Goldstone report.

'Crime and scandal'

Seven Palestinian groups joined Hamas leaders 
based in Damascus, Syria, on Sunday in issuing a 
statement of support for the postponement of the reconciliation deal.

They called Abbas's decision to freeze action on 
the UN report a "crime and scandal".

The groups emphasized the importance of 
reconciliation, but said Abbas's actions should not go unpunished.

In a televised speech from the conference in 
Damascus, Khaled Meshaal, the Hamas leader, spelled out his party's position.

"When Goldstone investigated the criminal 
aggression by Israel against Gaza, this was an 
opportunity to indict Israel," he said.

"But this group of Palestinian leaders [Fatah 
leadership] withdrew the report. This is the 
Goldstone scandal. A courageous leadership is a 
leadership that is frank with its people.

"Those who are accumulating political mistakes 
are today continuing their lies. This is not a 
leadership that deserves to be entrusted with the 
leadership of the Palestinians.

The Goldstone report recommended that the UN 
Security Council require both sides to carry out 
credible investigations into alleged abuses 
during the conflict - in which 13 Israelis and 
almost 1,400 Palestinians, including hundreds of 
civilian women and children, were killed.

Israel has rejected the report's allegations 
while the US has called it deeply flawed.

But many Palestinians, and not just Hamas 
members, were outraged after Abbas withdrew 
Palestinian support for having the UN Human 
Rights Council forward the report to the 
192-nation General Assembly for possible action.

Related

<http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/10/20091011182856246590.html>Abbas 
defends Gaza vote delay
In reaction, Abbas gave his own speech on Sunday 
in Ramallah - saying Hamas had its own reasons 
for not wanting to sign a reconciliation agreement.

"This campaign by Hamas is aimed at serving their 
interests, which is to postpone the signing of 
the reconciliation agreement," he said.

"They want to concentrate their rule and their 
regime in Gaza. They want to ensure the 
continuity of division in Gaza, that aims at 
weakening the Palestinian Authority."

Unity 'efforts continuing'

Some Palestinian parliamentarians are still 
hopeful that a reconciliation agreement might be reached by October 25.

Barghouthi, the Palestinian politician, said 
despite the public media attacks, unity efforts are continuing.

"The Egyptians have provided a final copy of the 
agreement for reconciliation. And hopefully, by 
the 20th of this month, all parties will sign 
this agreement in preparation for a ceremony that 
would declare unity," he told Al Jazeera.

[]

Abbas's decision not to back the Gaza report at 
the UNHRC was deeply unpopular [AFP]

"Delaying the Goldstone report vote would never 
have happened if we had had a united Palestinian leadership.

"Given that Israel has arrested large numbers of 
parliamentary members, the parliament is 
paralysed and unable to function - so this agreement needs to happen."

But other Palestinians say the chances of national unity are slim.

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Monday, Azzam Tamimi, 
author of Hamas: Unwritten Chapters, said saving 
the reconciliation process while Abbas remains president is almost impossible.

"The overwhelming opinion in the Palestinian 
street now is that Abbas is a complete traitor. 
There is no coming back from that," he said.

"And what makes this worse is the reality that, 
despite much hope for change with a new US 
government under President Barack Obama, it seems 
clear now that it was American pressure that 
forced Abbas not to back the UN war report."

Tamimi said Washington's policy towards the whole 
Palestine issue "has not changed, despite a new 
set of faces in the White House".
  Source: Al Jazeera





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