Hamas calls on Abbas to withdraw from negotiations with Israel in protest of siege on Gaza

[ProgressiveMuslim]

Date: 21 / 01 / 2008 Time: 11:19

Gaza – Ma'an – Hamas, the ruling party in the Gaza Strip, called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to withdraw from negotiations with the Israeli government in protest of Israel's crippling siege of the Gaza Strip on Monday.

Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri said that pressing forward with peace talks while Gaza suffers would be "a crime." He called on Abbas, a member of the rival Fatah party, to enter into negotiations with other Palestinian factions in order to restore national unity.

He said Israel's total closure of the Strip constitutes "execution through siege."

After months of increasingly tight closure, Israel imposed a total lockdown on the Gaza Strip on Friday, cutting supplies of food, medicine, and fuel.

Abu Zuhri also accused the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority government based in the West Bank of tacitly condoning Israel's strangling of the Gaza Strip. He called Palestinian Prime Minsiter Salam Fayyad a "collaborator with the Israeli occupation."

In a press conference in Gaza City, Abu Zuhri urged Palestinians to pray and fast in hopes of lifting the siege.

As for the Egyptian-Palestinian controlled Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip, Abu Zuhri called on Arab leaders to defy Israeli-American policy and work towards opening that border.


http://maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=27341

[ProgressiveMuslim]

1. Pressure mounts on Abbas as PLC speaker demands a tougher stance towards Israel

Date: 21 / 01 / 2008 Time: 12:06


Gaza's only power plant shut down
on Sunday night due to a fuel
shortage
Gaza – Ma'an – The speaker of the Palestinian legislative Council (PLC)Aziz Dweik issued a statement from his Israeli prison cell on Monday calling on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to take immediate action to end the Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip.

The communiqué said: "My heart as well as the hearts of each true Muslim or Arab patriot are bleeding as a result of what has happened to our people in the Gaza Strip after they ran out of food, liquor, medicines and fuel. This was the outcome of the Zionist embargo imposed on the Gaza Strip which culminated by the closure of all the Strip's crossings jeopardizing the lives of a million and a half residents locked there."

"On behalf of myself as speaker of the PLC and on behalf of my fellow lawmakers, I call upon you to surpass all partial disagreements and take a united Palestinian stance and act through all available means to lift that siege," he continued.

As Israel escalates is assault on the Gaza strip, pressure is mounting on Abbas to take a firmer stance with the Israeli government, with whom he has been negotiating a potential peace agreement. On Monday, the Hamas-led government of the Gaza Strip called on Abbas to withdraw from the negotiations in protest of the Israeli closure.

http://maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=27344

[Shaktimaan]

5. Why would pulling out of peace talks be a good thing?

Isn't it a little hypocritical to expect Israel to engage in peace talks during the height of the intifada but then encourage the Palestinians to shut down those talks in the face of Gaza's "siege?" I would offer that these talks are of such monumental importance that keeping the connection alive supercedes any events occurring between the two sides. If Gaza is in dire straits wouldn't it be better to have an open line of communication with the Israelis, to show them that despite the strife the PLO is serious about continuing peace negotiations?

For the Palestinians to drop out over Gaza... well, the only ones who would be hurt would be the Palestinians themselves.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

2. Images of protests all over the arab world...

on Al Jazeera this a.m....

How can Fatah continue this charade??

[bemildred]

3. This is all part of a clever plan to strengthen Abbas and Fatah.

:sarcasm:

[oberliner]

4. Here is a link to a photo of a Palestinian child buring Israeli and American flags

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//080121/photos_wl/2008_01_21t045206_450x372_us_davos_forum_islam/

More info about the protesting on Al-Jazeera's English site (with photo):

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3404C3F3-AA80-4A40-ABA9-29DA50E801B2.htm

[Shaktimaan]

6. Irony?

People gathered across the occupied Palestinian territories as well as in Amman, the Jordanian capital, and Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, to protest against the blockade.

"Oh Arabs, where is your compassion? They are slaughtering our people in Gaza," chanted hundreds of demonstrators in the Ein al-Helweh camp.