TRYING to divide the Palestinian leadership, the United States and Canada on Wednesday suspended contacts with and aid to the new Palestinian 24-member Hamas-formed government.
THIS was sworn in by President Mahmud Abbas in Gaza city earlier in the day, marking the tenth Palestinian government since the establishment of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in 1996.
Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, after taking the oath, pledged full cooperation with the Palestinian presidency, and said that the Hamas government is prepared to give a chance to negotiations between Mahmud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and Israel.
Haniya also promised to cooperate fully with Abbas’ office ‘in the international and Arab arenas.’
Israel, not Hamas, is the problem, he said. ‘The problem is not whether the Palestinians accept or not negotiations. The problem is whether the Israeli side accepts negotiations and signed agreements,’ Haniya told reporters in Gaza.
‘If the Authority chairman, as the elected president, wants to get the negotiations moving, we have no objection to that. If what Abu Mazen (Abbas) presents to the people as a result of negotiations serves its interest, then we too will redefine our position,’ he added.
Haniya said if Abbas wants to go ahead with peace talks, ‘it’s his prerogative and we have no problem with that.’
Speaking at a news conference shortly after the swearing-in ceremony, Haniya said that the new cabinet and Abbas would build up relations of ‘harmony, cooperation and coordination.
‘We will work together to serve the highest interests of the Palestinian people in face of coming challenges,’ said Haniya.
‘We affirm that the relationship between the government and the presidency of the Palestinian Authority will be one of cooperation, coordination and harmony that serves the highest interests of the Palestinian people,’ he added.
The prime minister also thanked Abbas for sponsoring the democratic process all the way from holding the January legislative elections to Wednesday’s swearing in.
Abbas, on his part, told reporters after the inauguration that he and the Hamas cabinet should spare no effort to overcome differences and establish firm cooperation.
The new Hamas government ‘knows what is required’ of it and should avoid to ‘impose international isolation’ on the PNA, President Abbas told reporters separately after swearing in the Hamas government.
Abbas reiterated however that many differences remain between him and Hamas, and that both sides should try to bridge them.
Abbas arrived back Wednesday for the cabinet’s swearing-in ceremony after attending the Arab League Summit meeting in Sudan. Before leaving Khartoum, Abbas called on the new Israeli leadership ‘to work to stop the wars and threats and to choose the option of peace.
‘We are prepared to resume immediate negotiations with Israel but the new government must abandon the intention to impose solutions in a unilateral manner,’ Abbas said.
Israeli acting prime minister Ehud Olmert appealed to Abbas early Wednesday to enter into negotiations over the permanent borders of Israel, but added that Israel would act alone if peace efforts remained stalled.
Abbas decreed on Wednesday to appoint Mohammad Ahmad as the secretary general of the new Palestinian government.
Abbas swore in the Hamas-formed 24-member Cabinet during a 10-minute ceremony in the building of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) in Gaza city on Wednesday.
The Cabinet ministers took their oath in two ceremonies, held simultaneously in the West Bank town of Ramallah and Gaza Strip because Israel bans the travel of Hamas leaders between the two occupied territories. The two locales were hooked up by video-conference.
His beard neatly trimmed and dressed in a sombre business suit, Haniya walked along a red carpet, then placed his hand on a copy of the Muslim holy book, the Quran, laid out on a low table and took the oath:
‘I swear by God to be loyal to the homeland, its holy places, people and its national heritage, and to respect the constitution and the law, and uphold entirely the interests of the Palestinian people,’ he said.
The other members of the 24 member cabinet, including one woman and one Christian, then walked up to take the same oath, their right-hand placed on their respective holy books.
Ten are from Gaza and 14 are from the West Bank. Nine have engineering degrees and the rest are university graduates in other fields. Nineteen are Hamas activists and five are independents.
The Cabinet includes 14 ministers who served time in Israeli prisons, ranging from six months to six years. Haniya was detained by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) in 1989, and served three years for allegedly heading a Hamas unit that hunted down suspected informers for Israel.
Haniya described the approval of his government by the Palestinian Parliament as a victory to the Palestinian resistance, and to the idea of holding on to the Palestinian rights.
Calling Hamas’ assumption of power a ‘historic moment,’ Haniya told reporters following a prayer before the Solar Eclipse: ‘The light of the new government will shine after the Eclipse.’
Haniya said that together, Palestinians would confront ‘Israeli aggression against the people’ as well as internal chaos.
‘We were born from the womb of resistance, we will protect resistance and the arm of resistance will not be touched,’ Haniya said on Tuesday, one day after delivering a more conciliatory speech to the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) on Monday, in which he unveiled his government’s platform, where he called for a ‘just peace’ in the region.
In his speech, Haniya however warned the West not to seek to punish the Palestinian people for exercising their democratic choice but he also said he was willing to hold peace talks with world powers, including the United States.
Washington swiftly rejected the appeal, but other key players, notably Moscow, have called for the ‘result of the recent democratic elections in Palestine’ to be approached in a pragmatic and constructive way.
However, the US Administration and Canada on Wednesday instructed their diplomats and contractors to boycott the Palestinian government led by Hamas and to confine their contacts with Palestinians to President Abbas and the NGOs.
US President George W Bush recognised that the January 25 Palestinian elections in which Hamas won a landslide victory were fair and free, but he said the United States is not required to give monetary support to Hamas simply because the vote was free and fair.
‘We support the election process, we support democracy, but that doesn’t mean we have to support governments that get elected as a result of democracy,’ Bush said, adding: ‘Now, the Palestinians must make a choice as to whether or not it makes sense for them to have a government that says they want to destroy their neighbour.
‘If the goal of the United States is two states living side by side in peace and one government elected says, “We want to destroy one of the parties,” it makes no sense for us to support that government,’ Bush said.
‘We are not going to provide funds to a terrorist organisation,’ he said. ‘And we are not going to provide US funds to a Hamas-led government.’ The US labels Hamas a ‘terrorist’ group.
