THE official spokesperson of the Fatah-affiliated Martyr Abu Ammar Brigades, Abu Muhammad, has affirmed the brigades’ loyalty to political leaders and Fatah decisions, but announced that the group refuses to hand over its weapons or renounce violence against Israel.
The announcement follows the declaration of the main military wing of Fatah, the Al-Aqsa Brigades, last Sunday in which the fighters abandoned the armed struggle against Israel.
‘We did not and will not hand over our weapons and cease resistance against the Israeli occupation as long as it is targeting Palestinians and invading the Palestinian territories and as long as it continues to pursue the Palestinian resistance everywhere,’ said Abu Mohammad.
Abu Mohammad also said that the brigades do not recognise ‘the Israeli pardon of resistance men.’
He asserted: ‘We, the Palestinians, are not murderers, so we should automatically be immune to pursuit, we are resisting and this is our legitimate right.’
At the same time, Abu Mohammad congratulated the 256 Fatah prisoners on their release from Israeli jails and appealed for ongoing efforts to release all prisoners.
Meanwhile the Hamas Premier, Ismail Haniya, on Sunday stated his approval of the intervention of former US President Jimmy Carter in the Palestinian domestic crisis.
Haniya’s comments were made during a meeting with director of the Carter Centre in the West Bank, Scott Caster, in Haniya’s office in Gaza City.
Caster conveyed to Haniya Carter’s willingness to mediate in the domestic Palestinian dispute.
Haniya said that any mediation should be just and based on Palestinian legitimacy.
Carter’s latest book ‘Palestine Peace not Apartheid’ was published in 2006.
Fawzi Barhum, the Hamas spokesman in Gaza, has accused PNA chief Mahmud Abbas and Salam Fayyad, the premier of the unconstitutional emergency government, of ‘conspiring against the Palestinian people and its identity’ through the closure of the Rafah crossing and issuing decrees designed to eliminate the Palestinian resistance.
‘The chapters of the conspiracy with the connivance of Abbas and Fayyad against the Palestinian people’s identity and legitimacy are apparent’ whether through the closure of Rafah crossing and the opening of Karam Abu Salem crossing or through their attempt to disarm the resistance and to connect it with terrorism, the Hamas spokesman stated during a symposium entitled ‘Hamas between legitimacy and coup’ held by the Islamic bloc in the Islamic University in Gaza on Saturday evening.
‘The Zionist entity is exploiting the ominous security and economic agreements signed by the PNA, starting from the Oslo accords, which brought calamities to the Palestinian people, to the Paris economic agreement, which destroyed the Palestinian economy, the crossings agreement, the secret security meetings, and the security coordination with the Palestinian presidency and the Fayyad’s unconstitutional government,’ the spokesman elaborated.
The spokesman also denounced Abbas’ statements that Hamas has links with Al-Qaeda and warned of the ramifications of inciting the world public opinion against the Palestinian people at large and of the danger of such statements on the future of the Palestinian cause.
He renewed Hamas’ invitation to return to serious dialogue in order to solve all issues on the basis of the Palestinian national consensus, without preconditions, and away from foreign dictates and meddling with internal Palestinian affairs.
Another senior Hamas political leader and member of its political bureau Izzat al-Resheq has accused PNA chief Mahmud Abbas and the Fatah Movement of marginalising the legitimate PNA institutions, including the PLC (Palestinian Legislative Council), in order to press on with their unilateral ‘unconstitutional’ measures.
Resheq’s remarks came after the Fatah faction of Abbas foiled a scheduled session of the PNA legislature on Sunday to vote on Fayyad’s government that was appointed by Abbas without a constitutional basis.
‘The fact that Fatah’s lawmakers and Salam Fayyad failed to attend the PLC session that was held based on the latter’s request leaves no doubt that they had the intention to foil that session’, Resheq affirmed as reports confirmed that Fayyad was roaming inside the PLC compound in Ramallah city but refused to enter into the PLC hall.
He attributed Fatah’s lawmakers’ failure to attend the session to the fact that they were of full conviction that Abbas’s favourite, Fayyad, won’t get the confidence vote for his ‘illegitimate’ government from the Hamas-dominated legislature.
Furthermore, Resheq shrugged off Fatah MPs’ allegations that the PLC session was illegal, questioning, ‘How could their man, Fayyad, ask an illegal council to hold a session to give his government the confidence vote?’
On the other hand, Resheq derided Fatah’s allegations that Hamas was influenced by Iran to halt the prisoners’ swap deal of captured Israeli serviceman Gilad Shalit.
‘These are false and baseless accusations that reflect real confusion among the PNA officials in Ramallah city, as they know very well that the ones that aborted the swap deal were PNA corrupt officials currently living among them after they were routed out of the Gaza Strip,’ Resheq underlined.
The Fatah spokesman in the West Bank, Jamal Nazzal parroted Israeli fabricated reports that Iran offered Hamas 40 million dollars in exchange for halting the swap process.
Hamas is an Islamic resistance Movement fighting Israel and working for the independence and freedom of the Palestinian people. It is widely respected in the Arab, Muslim, and international arena.
Acting PLC Speaker Ahmad Bahar urged Abbas to implement the PNA constitution’s terms in replacing Fayyad after he failed to obtain the needed confidence vote for his ‘illegitimate’ government.
PNA basic law stipulates that the commissioned PNA premier must ask for a PLC session for a confidence vote, which Fayyad did, and that the session must be held within one week of that request, which Bahar also did and called for the session before the lapse of the legal period.
The law also stipulates that if the confidence vote wasn’t obtained, regardless of the reasons, the PNA chief must replace that premier and pick up another one.
Bahar also confirmed that the PNA basic law doesn’t authorise the PNA chief to call for early legislative elections or dissolve the PLC.
Fayyad needs at least 67 votes out of the PLC’s 132 votes to get the confidence vote, but Hamas controls almost two-thirds of the legislature’s seats, making Fayyad’s hopes unfeasible as Hamas vowed not to give him what he needs despite the fact that 40 of the Movement’s lawmakers were kidnapped and retained in Israeli jails till now.
