Al-Aqsa Martyrs and Hamas challenge Arafat
PA president branded an Israeli ‘tool,’ unfit to
carry out reforms
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat faced new challenges to his leadership Thursday, with
Hamas saying his Palestinian Authority had become a tool of Israeli occupation and had no
place in any political reforms, while the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades vowed to press ahead
with suicide attacks, despite Arafat’s condemnation.
Less than a month after triumphantly emerging from an Israeli siege which restricted his
movement but saw his popularity among his population soar, radical Palestinian
organizations voiced discontent with the the very manner in which Arafat negotiated the
end to the siege.
In the Israeli coastal town of Herzliya, suspected Palestinian militants tried to set
ablaze a main Israeli fuel pumping depot, hours after a suicide bomber killed two Israelis
in Rishon Letzion.
In a direct attack on Arafat’s leadership, Hamas politburo head Khaled Meshaal said
the first priority of any new Palestinian political lineup should be to embrace armed
resistance in the face of Israeli occupation.
Arafat’s Palestinian Authority had already sold out, and was being manipulated by
Israel to help crush the uprising, he added.
“If we want to reform, let’s start with the leadership: Most of the leaders in
the PA need to be changed,” he said. “These people with their swollen pockets,
who have lived on the suffering of the Palestinian people, are not fit to reform.”
Meshaal’s sharp criticism came as Arafat promised to hold presidential and
legislative elections by early next year, following demands for reform from Palestinians
as well as the Israeli government and its close US ally.
Meshaal cited Arafat’s periodic crackdowns on Palestinian activists as well as calls
for an end to the suicide bombings as evidence that the PA had become a mouthpiece of the
Israeli foe.
“This shows that the PA has reached such a point of weakness and dependency, such a
sense of impotence … that it pays no attention to anything but what pleases the
Americans and Israelis, and doesn’t do its duty of defending the Palestinian
people,” he said. “What is the point of having the PA if it is incapable of
defending its people?”
“Imagine a government incapable of defending its people and protecting civilians, but
which at the same time doesn’t want those people to defend themselves,” he
added.
Meshaal said US interest in Palestinian reform, and Arafat’s apparent willingness,
were further cause for suspicion that the Palestinian leadership had cut a deal to save
itself by helping stamp out the 19-month uprising against occupation.
“Reform in that sense means preventing resistance, and transforming the PA into
Lahd’s Army, a repressive security tool to be used against the Palestinian people and
resistance,” he said, referring to the Lebanese militia Israel maintained under
Antoine Lahd during its occupation of south Lebanon.
In a verbal counterattack, a senior aide to Arafat accused Hamas of trying to use the
reform drive to replace the Palestinian leadership.
“Experience has proved the Hamas movement has its own program, which is different
from the national program, and it is trying to substitute the leadership of the
Palestinian people,” Tayeb Abdel-Rahim, the PA secretary-general, said.
He charged that Hamas leaders abroad were “immoral” and had “sold
out,” comparing the radical movement to Israel’s far-right, “which calls
for the destruction of the Palestinian Authority.”
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, meanwhile, warned that it would respect no “red
lines” in its confrontation with Israel, at the funeral in Nablus Thursday of three
of its activists killed by Israeli tank fire.
The three men were buried in a single tomb at the site where they died in Balata refugee
camp on the edge of the West Bank city of Nablus, which still bore traces of blood.
In a statement, distributed at the funeral, the group said there will be “no more red
lines” in its fight against Israel.
“Our response will measure up to the odious crime against our chief, Mahmoud Titi,
and his comrades,” it said, while a local official vowed that retaliation would be
“painful.”
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s suicide bombing
in Rishon Letzion, which killed two Israelis and wounded 27.
In Thursday’s incident near Tel Aviv, Israeli police said they suspected militants
had planted a bomb on the back of a tanker truck and detonated it by remote control as it
refueled at a
major fuel depot. Workers at the plant outside Herzliya put out a fire caused by the blast
before it could spread.
“A disaster was averted,” deputy Tel Aviv area police chief David Krauser told
Israel Army Radio of the explosion at the coastal depot, which caused no casualties.
Security sources said Israel was not planning a widescale retaliation for the Rishon
Letzion bombing or the incident at the fuel depot, but would continue raiding
Palestinian-ruled areas to root out militants and keep up a policy of tracking and killing
their commanders.
Two Palestinians were killed and five wounded in an explosion Thursday at a house in
Nablus in what appeared to be an accident while they were preparing explosives,
Palestinian sources said.
Witnesses who came to the scene said the blast appeared to have occurred inside the house
and was not the result of an Israeli missile or tank shell.
In Rafah, meanwhile, a Palestinian man was killed by Israeli tank fire, Palestinian
medical officials said.
Bassim Hamad Kishfar, 30, was hit in the chest when the tanks opened fire with heavy
machine-gun fire on houses in the Salahdin Gate area of Rafah near the border, they said.
Palestinian medical sources said there had been no unrest in the area prior to the
shooting, while the Israeli Army said it was looking into the report.
In the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Palestinian witnesses said that Israeli troops in a
tank, an armored personnel carrier and five jeeps pushed into the city, firing as they
advanced. There were no immediate reports of any casualties. With agencies Exiles insist on ‘right of return’
ATHENS: Two Palestinians exiled after the siege of Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity
insisted on their right to return home Thursday, as some of the 12 militants began life in
European host-countries under a deal struck this week.
Spain, Italy, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Belgium agreed to provide refuge for 12, who
were flown out of Cyprus on Wednesday. A 13th remains in Cyprus, where the men had been
staying after leaving Bethlehem on May 10. Mohammad Mouhanna, 21, one of two exiles in
Athens, stressed his right to return home.
“The EU’s Middle East … representative, Miguel Angel Moratinos, said our
stay would be provisional and that he hoped we would be able to return in a year,” he
said.
Mouhanna described himself as a member of the Palestinian security services who had been
trained by the CIA for bodyguard duties.
The Palestinian diplomatic representative in Athens Abdullah Abdullah also spoke of
“the EU commitment to guarantee their right of return. “
“When? That will depend on conditions,” he said.
The second exile in Athens, Mamdouh al-Wardiyane, 23, declined to confirm or deny he was a
member of Hamas, as claimed by Israel.
“We hope we won’t be here too long,” he said.
Three Palestinians left Spain Thursday, two flying to Ireland and another to Belgium.
Palestinian envoy Abdullah said here the two exiles in Athens were completely free and
would lead a quiet and normal life at the expense of Greece, which was also responsible
for their security. AFP
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