The composition of the new Palestinian Authority’s technocrat government will be announced on June 6th by delegates from Fatah and Hamas as a major step to the implementation of a unity agreement, an official said on Sunday.
Member of the Fatah Central Committee Nabil Sha’th told in Gaza City following a two-hour meeting with Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, that the new government, expected to be composed of independent figures for a term of one year, was a ‘good and positive sign,’ indicating a commitment to the implementation of the unity deal inked in Cairo on May 4th.
Sha’th is in Gaza with several Fatah delegates to continue work on implementing the unity plan, as others remain in Cairo ironing out details of the new government.
He said the names of the new government would be presented to the Palestinian Legislative Council for approval.
The body has essentially been defunct since 2007, when internal friction ended in a split between the leading Palestinian parties Fatah and Hamas.
The official also said he expected the issue of political arrests to be shortly concluded.
Hamas regularly announces the detention of its members by Palestinian Authority forces operating in the West Bank, and says they are harassed for their political affiliation.
‘The number of prisoners has already been reduced to so few,’ Sha’th said, that the process under way of setting up mechanisms for their release ahead of the unity government’s installation should be swift.
Mohammad Awad, minister of foreign affairs and planning in the Gaza government, described the ongoing meetings between Fatah and Hamas as productive, saying discussions centred on the restoration of trust and a unified political environment.
‘We want to speed up the steps,’ Awad said, adding that officials also wanted to make sure that the new government would represent the aspirations of the Palestinian people.
He said that Haniya had ‘expressed full commitment to the implementation of the unity agreement,’ and considered it a ‘strategic option and a national necessity,’ noting his disapproval of a series of speeches by Israeli and US leaders in Washington last week.
The meeting between factions was held in the government headquarters in Gaza City.
The building currently houses cabinet meetings for the Hamas-lead government in the coastal enclave, and in the past Fatah officials had refused to meet in the location, gathering instead at the home of Haniya.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday said that there is no way to stop the United Nations General Assembly from recognising Palestinian statehood in September.
In the UN General Assembly, he remarked, ‘it would be possible to get a resolution passed saying the world is flat,’ speaking at a Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee meeting.
Netanyahu added, however, ‘It’s impossible to receive recognition of Palestinian statehood that doesn’t come from the (UN) Security Council, whose procedures will lead to failure.
‘We don’t have any way to stop the resolution in the General Assembly, we’re only expecting to be supported by a number of countries.’
On Sunday, Netanyahu had emphasised Israel’s commitment to develop Jerusalem employing several Judaization projects.
The announcement comes a few days after Netanyahu gave a speech that drew heavy support in the US Congress where he declared Jerusalem the eternal capital for the ‘Jewish state’.
He said during a cabinet meeting held Sunday that the unity of Jerusalem is one of the foundations of the unity of the Israelis, and that the support that the projects have received by Knesset and Congress is an asset to Israel.
In the same session, Netanyahu announced a US$100 million investment package.
The statements come just a day after the High Arab Follow-up Committee for the Arab peace initiative (an Arab League committee) adopted a resolution that supports the Palestinian Authority going to the UN get recognition for an independent state of Palestine.
According to the resolution, Palestinian borders would be based on those etched in 1967, and the capital would be East Jerusalem.
l Israeli soldiers escorted 1,600 Israelis into the northern West Bank city of Nablus in the early hours of Monday to visit Joseph’s Tomb.
Nablus residents said around 50 military vehicles escorted the Israelis, who arrived at around 1am and left at 5am.
An additional 200 Israeli settlers entered Palestinian neighbourhoods without coordinating with Israeli authorities, an Israeli military spokesman said.
Around 50 settlers barricaded themselves inside the West Bank city, and an army spokesman said confrontations erupted between the settlers and Israeli soldiers trying to evacuate them.
Under the Oslo accords, Nablus is in Area A and is part of the 17 per cent of the West Bank under Palestinian civil and security control.
But the visit was not coordinated with the PA, Palestinian security officials said.
Witnesses said Ultra-Orthodox settlers were among the visitors.
Locals said Huwwara checkpoint, south of Nablus, was closed at midnight and Palestinian drivers were not allowed to use the main road from the city.
Israeli forces set up several flying checkpoints in the area, locals and an Israeli military spokesman said.
The army spokesman said Palestinians had filed complaints over property damage caused by Israeli settlers during the visit.
He said all complaints would be ‘thoroughly examined by the relevant authorities’.
On Sunday, Israeli forces destroyed eight wells near Jenin before they were forced to withdraw by residents, local witnesses said.
Forces arrived with bulldozers and planned to destroy 12 wells in Kafr Dan, but residents prevented them from completing the demolitions, said the head of the village agricultural society, Mohammad Fahmi.
Fahmi said Israeli authorities had informed Palestinian farmers they would demolish 12 wells in the northern West Bank village because they were unlicensed.
The Governor of Jenin, Qadura Mousa, joined residents from several local communities to confront the forces, who left the area after destroying eight wells, Fahmi said.
The governor denounced the demolitions as ‘terrorist acts,’ and said they were carried out to try and force farmers to leave their land.
Fahmi said Israeli soldiers briefly detained several residents who stopped the demolitions.
The wells that were demolished belonged to Husam Marinman, Mohammad Mustafa, Ahmad A’bed, Baha Ghaleb and Jihad Mar’i.
A spokesman for Israel’s civil administration said residents of Jenin had complained that ‘legal wells’ were running dry because of the use of unlicensed wells.
