FATAH and Hamas are close to resolving the issues of political detainees and passports for Gaza residents, senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath said Wednesday.
Shaath met with Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahhar in Gaza City on Tuesday to discuss implementation of a reconciliation deal signed in May to end years of rivalry between the parties.
The Fatah leader said that both parties were processing the release of political prisoners, as agreed in the unity deal.
‘The case is being processed by both sides, and the committee for public freedoms as well as Egypt is involved in assessing whether those detainees were held over political affiliation or criminal charges. The case is almost resolved.’
But Shaath said there were only around 40 people jailed for their political activism.
‘People imagine that there are thousands of detainees held for their political affiliation. It is true that in the past thousands of political detainees were held by both sides, but nowadays the number is around 40,’ Shaath said.
Meanwhile the Committee for Public Freedoms, set up to oversee implementation of the unity deal, has discussed issuing passports to Hamas supporters who were denied documents by the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, Shaath said.
Shaath discussed the matter with Zahhar, and agreed that all citizens had the right to a Palestinian passport.
‘However, I highlighted that Palestinian passports, which are respected all over the world, should be protected from any forgery or changes,’ he added.
Asked about Zahhar’s comments that peaceful resistance was not applicable in Gaza, Shaath said the issue was not on the agenda for the meeting.
The purpose of the meeting was to speed up implementation of the reconciliation agreement, Shaath said.
‘Reconciliation committees will hold successive meetings so as to build nationalistic relations on the ground which will enable us to form a technocrat government quickly.’
Rivalry between Hamas and Fatah reached a peak in 2007, when fighting neared civil war and led to the creation of separate governments in the West Bank and Gaza.
Some eight months on from the signing of the reconciliation agreement in Cairo, many aspects of the deal have yet to be implemented, including the formation of a unity government.
• Meanwhile, Palestinian envoys handed Israeli officials a proposal for resolving border and security issues at a meeting in the Jordanian capital on Tuesday attended by international Quartet delegates.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Juda said Israeli representatives promised to respond to the proposals in future meetings, which were agreed to be held in Amman at an unspecified date.
Juda emphasised that there were no specific breakthroughs at the meeting, which was called by the international Quartet.
‘The gap is wide between the two sides on all issues… The issues are complicated and we do not expect to resolve them in a day or two,’ he told reporters in Amman.
Negotiations stalled in late 2010 after Israel refused to renew a partial freeze on Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, which officials say threaten a viable Palestinian state.
On Tuesday, President Mahmoud Abbas told reporters in Ramallah that Palestinians were ready to resume direct talks if the Israeli government agrees on freezing settlement expansion.
Juda did not confirm Israel’s position on a settlement freeze, but noted ‘an agreement on borders and security will put an end to settlements.’
Both sides had downplayed the meeting, with senior PLO Wasl Abu Yossef insisting: ‘This is not a resumption of negotiations.’
The Palestinians were simply fulfilling a request by the Quartet to present their positions on the issues of security and borders, he said prior to the summit.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri had called on the Palestinian Authority to boycott Tuesday’s meeting, saying it was ‘repeating a policy of failure’.
‘The only beneficiary (of the summit) will be the Israeli occupation,’ he said.
l The Palestinian Authority condemned Tuesday Israel’s move to demolish a closed Gaza crossing, warning it would tighten the blockade on the coastal enclave.
Israeli radio station Rishet Bet reported Monday that huge explosions were heard as Israeli forces took down buildings at the Karni crossing, after the army warned Palestinian factions were planning to use to passway to launch attacks on Israel.
At its weekly cabinet meeting, the government said the levelling on Gaza’s main commercial crossing, which was closed by Israel in 2007, was a ‘illegal, unilateral move’.
The cabinet also expressed support for the PLO’s decision to complain to the United Nations Security Council and the Arab League about Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
An Israeli ministry issued tenders to build 300 new homes in Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank on Tuesday, Israeli media reported.
All settlement on occupied land is prohibited by international law, and Palestinian officials say they cannot enter peace talks with Israel while it builds on land necessary for a viable Palestinian state.
l Israel has decided to try and open dialogue with Islamic factions in Egypt, the Hebrew media reported Wednesday.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry has instructed the Israeli ambassador in Cairo Jacob Amity to start talks with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Salafi parties.
Israel’s former ambassador to Egypt Yitzhad Levanon suggested establishing relations with the Islamist movements after the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak in January, but the Foreign Ministry rejected the initiative.
But the ministry reconsidered in light of the parties’ strong showing in elections.
The Muslim Brotherhood looked set to win a dominant role in Egypt’s first free parliament in decades as Egyptians went to the polls on Wednesday for a second day in the final stage of the election for the assembly’s lower house.
The Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party has led after two of the three rounds of voting and the rise of Islamist parties in the poll has prompted Western concern for the future of Egypt’s close ties to Washington and peace with Israel.
The more hardline Islamist al-Nour Party has come second in the voting so far. It is a Salafi group promoting a strict interpretation of Islamic law and its success has raised the prospect of a chamber dominated by Islamists.
Some analysts believe, however, that the Muslim Brotherhood could seek to build a coalition with secular groups.
The staggered lower house election concludes with a run-off vote on January 10 and 11, with final results expected on January 13. Voting for the upper house will be held in January and February.
