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Abbas: expected to sign, not to make any concessions.
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| By Israel Insider staff December 6, 2007 |
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The Palestinian Legislative Council is expected to pass a law that would make it illegal to make any concessions on Jerusalem. The bill, which passed its first reading on Thursday, also defines such concessions as a crime of high treason, punishable by death. Presented by Hamas legislator Ahmed Abu Halbiyeh, the bill is expected to pass in second and third readings in the coming days.
The PLC session was boycotted by many members of the rival Fatah faction in protest of Hamas's violent takeover of the Gaza Strip last June. But many Fatah legislators have made it clear that they too support the law, which states that Jerusalem is a Palestinian, Arab and Islamic city and that it is totally forbidden to give up or conduct negotiations about any part of the city.
The bill still requires the approval of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who would receive it shoudl it pass the second and third readings.
The law would hamstring Abbas on the eve of the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on core issues, which include the future status of Jerusalem. Hamas officials said Abbas would have no other option but to endorse the law and thus would be prevented from discussing Jerusalem if he valued his life.
Tayeb Abdel Rahim, a top Abbas aide, said that, as far as the PA was concerned, Jerusalem was a "red line" that cannot be crossed. Abbas told supporters in Ramallah Thursday that he gave up nothing in Annapolis. "There are some people who are trying to distort the truth," he said. "They are saying that we went to Annapolis to sell our cause, negotiate and sign agreements. But we went there to convey our principle and fixed positions."
Abbas said the Palestinian delegation to Annapolis faced many "obstacles," including the demand to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and to relinquish the rights of the Palestinian refugees, he added. He gave up nothing in this regard, he told supporters. He said that he and his team rejected the idea of establishing a Palestinian state with temporary borders for fear that the borders would one day become permanent.
"The Palestinian people want a state in the 1967 borders, including Jerusalem," he stressed. "We also want a solution to the problem of the refugees in accordance with the Arab peace initiative and United Nations resolution 194."
Abbas expressed his willingness to talk to Hamas -- after the Islamist movement surrenders control over.
"What Hamas did [in Gaza ] was a disaster for the Palestinians," he said. "This was an evil coup that was carried out by the prime minister and interior minister in the deposed [Hamas] government. But we are not opposed to dialogue with Hamas. Hamas is an integral part of the Palestinian people."
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