Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, Minister of Information in the dissolved government, stated on Tuesday that Israel does not seek to make one Palestinian faction stronger that the other, but seeks to weaken all Palestinian factions, and create isolated cantons in the Palestinian territories.
During a press conference in Ramallah, in the northern part of the West Bank, Dr. Barghouthi stated that Olmert want to create two Isolated Palestinian ghettoes; one in the Gaza Strip and one in the West Bank.
Dr. Barghouthi added that the Monday statements of the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, during the Sharm Al Sheikh summit in Egypt, were far away from presenting any fundamental issues such as the issue of Jerusalem, the refugee, settlements, borders and other important issues, and instead focused on a absent political horizon.
Dr. Barghouthi said that Olmert does not have the right to condition the release of Palestinian tax revenue with the absence of any Hamas member in the government, and added that Israel does not have the right to withhold the Palestinian tax revenue.
Dr. Barghouthi also slammed the statements of Olmert regarding the possibility of releasing 250 detainees, members of Fateh movement, and said that there are at least 11000 detainees imprisoned by Israel.
Regarding the internal Palestinian situation, Barghouthi ejected any military act carried by any Palestinian faction against the other, rejected all attacks against the people, holy sites, institutions and called for fundamental reforms in all Palestinian security devices.
He added that the Palestinian must form a transitional government which would be responsible for reforming the security devices, and reforming the ministries and the governmental institutions, in addition to calling for early elections.