Palestinian Leaders Appeal for Arab Political Support, Financial Aid
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) and police were on high alert Tuesday and sealed off more than 3.5 million Palestinians as Israelis began heading for the polls in the election for the 17th Knesset, which The Jerusalem Post described as ‘ a referendum on unilaterism,’ i.e. the policy of the Kadima Party that was on Monday rejected by the Arab foreign ministers preparing for the Arab League summit in Khartoum as well by the Palestinian leadership and the incoming government of Hamas.
Outlining the main points of his incoming government's program, Hamas Prime Minister-designate Ismail Haniyeh on Monday told the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) that his government rejected Israel’s unilateral separation plan, which the Israeli Acting Premier Ehud Olmert pledged to carry out if his Kadima Party won Tuesday’s parliamentary elections in Israel, saying it would ‘turn our country (the Occupied Palestinian Territory) into isolated cantons.’
Both the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and its offshoot the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) reject Israel’s unilateral policy and insist on a negotiated settlement for the Palestinian – Israeli conflict.
Speaker of the PLC, Aziz Dweik, appealed Monday to the Arab League summit, which opens in Sudan’s capital. Khartoum on Tuesday, to support the Palestinian people.
‘From the PLC, the Palestinians … wish the success for the summit to serve the interests of the Arabs and our people in particular,’ Dweik said.
Arab League foreign ministers meeting in Khartoum on Sunday adopted a draft resolution rejecting Israeli Acting Prime Minister’s plan for a unilateral demarcation of Israel’s borders in the West Bank.
Ministers have agreed ‘to reject partial solutions and unilateral Israeli measures including... the unilateral demarcation of Israel’s borders,’ according to the final draft resolution agreed at a preparatory meeting for a two-day Arab summit opening Tuesday.
‘This fulfills Israel's expansionist greed and renders impossible (all plans) to establish a sovereign and independent Palestinian state,’ said a copy of the draft seen by AFP.
However the Arab ministers called on the international Middle East diplomatic Quartet to ‘stress that any unilateral move should be within the attempts to reach comprehensive and just peace in the Middle East, based on the (2002) Arab peace initiative and the roadmap.’
Hamas’ Message of Peace, Dialogue Rebuffed
Palestinian Premier-designate on Monday announced that his government was ready for a dialogue with the Quartet.
‘Our government will be ready for a dialogue with the Quartet committee to look into all ways to end the state of struggle and achieve calm in the region,’ Haniyeh said.
The United States and Israel immediately refused Haniyeh’s offer.
The Quartet - the US, European Union, United Nations and Russia -- issued a statement shortly after the Hamas election victory in January saying that there would be no dealing with the group unless it recognized Israel, renounced terrorism and agreed to abide by understandings already made between Israel and the PLO.
Haniyeh, despite the fact that the US and EU label his anti-occupation group, the Islamic Resistance Movement ‘Hamas,’ as a ‘terrorist organization,’ sent a message of peace.
‘Our people are in need more than any other nation on earth for peace, for security and stability,’ he told the Palestinian lawmakers.
‘Our government will not spare any effort to achieve a just peace in the region,’ Haniyeh said. ‘We have never been seekers of war. We have never been callers for terrorism and bloodshed,’ he added.
However Israel’s Kadima Party, the frontrunner in the elections, said it would give the PNA six to 12 months to comply with Israeli demands before a Kadima-led government would begin unilateral withdrawals from the West Bank, senior Kadima member Haim Ramon announced Sunday.
‘We will give a reasonable time for Abu Mazen [President Mahmoud Abbas] to meet those demands... six months or a year,’ Ramon told foreign journalists gathered in Jerusalem.
Ramon spoke soon after Kadima leader Ehud Olmert declared on Israel Radio that it would be inappropriate to talk about a time frame for the pullout ahead of the elections.
Olmert said in an interview broadcast Sunday: ‘We want to set the permanent borders of Israel, and to do so, we must separate from the Palestinians,’ he told Israel Radio. ‘In order to separate from the Palestinians, we must define for ourselves our red lines.’
Abbas, Haniyeh Appeal for Arab Support
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on Arab states Sunday to support the Palestinian people by continuing their economic aid and adhering to the peace plan known as the ‘Road Map.’
Abbas' statement came following talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Sharm al-Sheikh.
‘We look forward to the Arab Summit, to Arab support for the Palestinians to continue, and the Arab states should - and we hope they will - continue their economic assistance to the Palestinian people and comply with international legitimacy, especially the Road Map,’ Abbas said in a statement to the press.
Similarly, during an interview with Al-Manar Channel, Haniyeh hoped that the Arab summit decisions would be up to the challenges that the nation is facing.
‘We appreciate the role of the Arab league in its support for the Palestinian people and their right, but we see that Palestinian issues are exceptional and so they need exceptional decisions during the Khartoum summit, on top of which is to honor the democratic choice of the Palestinian people, to ensure the legitimacy of the Palestinian government in the Arab world, to give political support to the Palestinian people and the elected government, and to give economic and financial support to the Palestinian people to face the besiege imposed on this people,’ he said, according to Al-Manar.
He urged the Arab leaders to honor their obligations to the PNA.
‘There are financial obligations on the Arab countries in accordance with the past Arab summits but we hope that this support will increase to cover up for the deficiency caused by the Israeli measures and threats by the United States and the western countries to cut aide for Palestinians,’ Haniyeh added.
Arab League members promised in 2002 to give $50 million US a month to the PNA, with each country assigned an amount to give. But Saudi Arabia the only one to have paid its allotment regularly. Kuwait and other Persian Gulf countries have given as well, but still short of their pledges, while some countries paid once or twice or never at all.
Hamas is urging the Arab summit to double the 2002’s pledges.
Since 2003, Arab countries have given $761 million - only 30 per cent of the promised amount over that period.
Arab governments face pressure from the United States to stop funding any Palestinian government headed by Hamas.
Separately the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly - comprising 240 lawmakers from the 25 EU countries plus Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco, Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey – said Monday that cutting aid to the Palestinians, on top of Israel’s refusal to hand over tax revenue, could lead to chaos.
Lawmakers, meeting in Brussels, are ‘alarmed at the chaos that could result from the lack of support and the illegal withholding (by Israel) of revenue to which it (Palestinian Authority) is entitled by law,’ a resolution adopted by the lawmakers said.