 |
 |
 |
|
|
Palestinian incoming PM Ismail Haniyeh, of the Islamic group Hamas, second from right, leaves the PLC building in Gaza City, Wednesday. (AP)
|
|
|
|
 |
| |
 |
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (AP)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| By Israel Insider staff and partners March 23, 2006 |
|
| |
The militant Islamic Hamas on Wednesday moved a step closer to taking control of the Palestinian government, calling a special session of parliament to approve its new Cabinet, sweeping aside objections from the Palestinian president over its refusal to recognize Israel.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas plans to state his complaints, but in the end, he will give his blessing to the new Hamas governing team, an official said. After meeting Abbas, parliament speaker Abdel Aziz Duaik said the house would convene "early next week."
Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert kept up the pressure on Hamas, telling a TV station six days before Israel's election that if there are no talks with the Palestinians, Israel will draw its own borders, annexing main settlement blocs. Hamas and Israel rule out talks with each other.
"We have to solve the problem ourselves, not to become a hostage to the Palestinians to decide when things will happen and what will happen," Olmert told Channel 10.
Incoming Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement that the parliament would be convened in special session to approve the new Cabinet. The discussion may take several days, but the outcome is a foregone conclusion, since Hamas won 72 of the 132 seats in the Jan. 25 parliamentary election, trouncing Abbas' Fatah.
Haniyeh is forming a Cabinet with 24 Hamas activists and experts, after no other party agreed to join.
Hamas wanted Fatah in the government, partly to deflect world criticism of Hamas, regarded as a terror group by Israel, the U.S. and European Union, which are threatening to cut hundreds of millions of dollars (euros) of vitally needed aid.
However, Fatah declined, apparently hoping the Hamas government will fail and the people will restore Fatah to power.
The next legal steps are parliamentary approval and Abbas' endorsement. But Abbas inserted an extra stage, putting the Hamas Cabinet and platform before the Fatah-dominated PLO Executive Committee. Predictably, the body refused to endorse them in a meeting Wednesday.
"We decided that we can't deal with the platform of this government or accept it, because the platform neglects the main achievement of the Palestinian people, which is the PLO," said Yasser Abed Rabbo, a PLO official.
However, Abbas does not have the authority to veto the Cabinet or its platform.Abbas was elected president in January 2005 and has three more years to serve, regardless of the makeup of the parliament.
Fatah legislator Saeb Erekat said Abbas planned to send Haniyeh a letter Thursday expressing the PLO's reservations but authorizing the Hamas leader to present his Cabinet to the legislature this weekend.
"He will tell them that he will not obstruct their ability to go to the council with the Cabinet," he said.
Incoming Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar, a top Hamas official, said the debate over Hamas' governing program was over. "Nobody can make demands on us at this moment," he said.
The main points of contention between the two are the status of the PLO and endorsement of interim peace accords.
Hamas' program also refuses to recognize a 1988 unilateral Palestinian declaration of independence that included a recognition of Israel.
For decades, the PLO, dominated by Abbas' Fatah, has been recognized in the world as the sole representative of the Palestinian people. In that capacity, it negotiated agreements with Israel in the early 1990s that led to creation of the Palestinian Authority.
But the Islamic Hamas opposes the PLO and rejects the agreements, since it does not accept the idea of a Jewish state in an Islamic Middle East. Its platform says only that Hamas would examine the agreements and adopt the parts it feels are beneficial to the Palestinian people.
EU leaders at a crossroads in relations with Palestinians
EU leaders opening their summit Thursday are at a crossroads in their dealings with Palestinians, who rely greatly on European aid but whose government will soon be led by a group the European Union calls a terrorist organization.
The fate of the EU's largest foreign aid program - worth more than US$600 million - has been in the balance since Hamas scored a landslide parliamentary election victory on Jan. 25.
Since then, the EU has been at pains to see how their aid can remain a lifeline for 4 million destitute Palestinians in the Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip without having to deal with the incoming Hamas government and keeping aid funds out of its coffers.
The EU may be running out of time to maneuver.
One Hamas official said Hamas hoped for a dialogue with the EU to prevent European aid from evaporating. Mahmoud Zahar, the incoming Palestinian foreign minister, told The Associated Press he would ask his counterparts at next week's Arab League summit "to arrange for us meetings with the Europeans."
That may work because the EU has ruled only out only "direct" meetings with Hamas.
Salah Bardawil, a Hamas spokesman, said Hamas already has established unofficial contacts with Europe through third parties, without specifying. The group's recent meetings in Russia were a gateway, and Egyptian officials have also spoken to European leaders on their behalf, he said.
"Europe and some countries are afraid to be held accountable for meeting with us. So all the meetings were through unofficial channels ... to feel the pulse," he said.
The EU has threatened to cut off aid to Hamas unless the group - which is sworn to destroy Israel - fully commits to the "roadmap" to Middle East peace written by the U.S., the EU, the U.N. and Russia.
EU officials have urged Hamas "to become a constructive force and meet the justified expectations" of Palestinians. The EU says it will see its reply in Hamas' government programs.
The emergence of a Hamas government has highlighted the huge extent to which Palestinians in the Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip depend on foreign handouts for their survival.
According to the World Bank, the Palestinians received US$1.3 billion in foreign aid last year: US$350 million in budget support for day-to-day operations; US$500 million in humanitarian and emergency aid and US$450 million in development aid.
The annual Palestinian budget is about US$1.9 billion. The US$1.3 billion in foreign aid last year accounted for 32 percent of Palestinian gross domestic product, making Palestinians the biggest recipients of foreign per capita aid in the world.
Almost half of annual foreign aid for the Palestinians comes from the EU and its 25 governments and totaled some US$603.5 million last year.
To keep that money coming, the EU has been studying how it can circumvent Hamas after it assumes power but has concluded that is virtually impossible.
"Most forms of external support require interaction with the Palestinian administration," EU security affairs chief Javier Solana said in a recent report, citing the dismal security situation in the Gaza Strip as one reason.
Washington has suspended some aid and Israel has cut off about US$50 million a month in tax revenues - funds that are crucial to the Palestinian budget.
In Rome, Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday stressed the European Union line that EU aid to needy Palestinians must not end up helping extremist organizations. Berlusconi made the comments in a meeting at his office with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
"In particular there was full agreement on the need that the new Palestinian leadership formed by Hamas renounce violence, recognize previously signed accords and the right to existence of the state of Israel," the statement from Berlusconi's office said.
AP contributed to this report.
|
|
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
|
