Fatah

Hamas, fatah flirt with unity deal

Thu, 23 May 2013 20:00:43 +0100

Fatah and Hamas agreed to form a unity government within three months at talks in Cairo last week.

Similar agreements have been reached on several occasions over the past few years, but none have been implemented.

A Fatah official said both sides had agreed on a timetable that begins with creating laws to govern elections.

Israel accused of sabotaging Hamas-Fatah reconciliation

Sandy Rashty — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 17:49:28 +0000

Israeli authorities have been accused of sabotaging rumoured Hamas-Fatah reconciliation attempts, after 20 members of Hamas were arrested in a West Bank raid earlier today.

The raid, which occurred early this morning, including the arrest of three Palestinian parliamentarians.

According to a report in the Jerusalem Post, Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum said the move "would not obstruct Hamas’s role in defending Palestinians and their lands and holy sites.”

Israeli leaders have not yet disclosed details of the arrest.

Hamas and Fatah head to Cairo for attempt at unity

Anshel Pfeffer — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 16:10:03 +0000

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met the head of Hamas’s political bureau, Khaled Mashaal, in Cairo on Wednesday in yet another attempt to push through a Fatah-Hamas unity agreement.

The first unity deal between the rival Palestinian factions was signed nearly two years ago but so far no concrete steps have been taken towards genuine joint-leadership.

In recent weeks there has been a rapprochement between the sides: Hamas has authorised Fatah members to hold a large rally in Gaza City and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority allowed Hamas to celebrate the anniversary of its foundation at events in West Bank cities.

The gradual warming in the relations prepared the ground for this week’s meeting under the auspices of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, who has been trying to get the two sides to implement the agreement.

The deal includes new elections, to be held in the West Bank and Gaza, following which a joint government will be formed with smaller, regional administrations in Ramallah and the Strip.

In a television interview this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cited the ongoing negotiations between Fatah and Hamas as a reason why the peace process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority is stuck.

Hamas and Fatah leaders due to meet in Egypt

Anna Sheinman — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 10:33:07 +0000

Palestinian Authority President and leader of Fatah Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas political chief Khaled Mashaal will meet in Egypt for reconciliation talks on Wednesday, according to reports in the Egyptian press.

In a statement reported by Egyptian news outlet Ahram Online, Egyptian Hamas politician Mousa Abu Marzouk said on Tuesday: "Mashaal and the Hamas delegation will try to arrange tonight with Egyptian officials for a possible meeting tomorrow between Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Mashaal himself to look into means of achieving Palestinian reconciliation."

Mr Abbas and Mr Mashaal are due to meet Egypt’s intelligence chief separately before conducting a three-way meeting with Mr Morsi.

Relations between the Islamist Hamas party which controls Gaza and secular Fatah, which controls the West Bank, have thawed significantly in recent weeks.

Last week, Hamas allowed Fatah to hold rallies in Gaza for the first time in five years and last month Hamas supporters celebrated their movement’s founding with a rally in the West Bank.

If the meeting takes place it will mark the continuation of the work of a reconciliation accord signed two years ago which has since stalled.

Fatah stages rally in Gaza

Sandy Rashty — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 12:42:57 +0000

Fatah today staged its first Gaza rally in five years to celebrate the 48th anniversary of the Palestinian Authority party.

Thousands of people were seen waving yellow flags in solidarity with the party.

The event resembled Hamas-inspired rallies that often take place in the West Bank and Gaza. Critics have suggested that the event is a sign of a growing alliance between Fatah and the terrorist group.

Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters: "The success of the rally is a success for Fatah, and for Hamas too. The positive atmosphere is a step on the way to regain national unity."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the international community of Hamas’s increasing strength. “Hamas could seize control of the PA any day,” Mr Netanyahu said yesterday.

Hamas holds rallies in West Bank

Anna Sheinman — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 13:03:15 +0000

Terrorist organisation Hamas has held its first rally in the West Bank in five years.

Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets of Nablus in the north of the territory on Thursday to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of Hamas.

Relations between Fatah and Hamas have been poor since antagonism erupted in 2007 and Hamas was elected in Gaza. However this rally, coupled with Fatah members attending rallies in Gaza last weekend suggested that relations are thawing.

Green banners were hung and models of rockets waved by the crowds to celebrate what Hamas perceive as a victory against Israel in Operation Pillar of Defence.

Muhammad Shtayyeh, a member of Fatah's central committee and an adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said: "Because Hamas believes that they have won the battle of Gaza and we believe that we have won the U.N. vote, you have two winning parties, and when you have two winning parties, they have more ability to compromise.”

Israel missing from Fatah logo’s map

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 17:30:23 +0000

Fatah’s new logo has essentially erased Israel from the map.

The image, created in honour of the party’s 48th anniversary, was launched on Monday in the official Palestinian Authority newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida and shows a Palestinian keffiyeh covering the territory between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.

Also featured are a white dove in chains, the Dome of the Rock on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, and a key meant to represent the disputed “right of return” for displaced Palestinians and their descendents. In Arabic, the words “the state and victory” are present, as is the highly symbolic number 48.

For many Palestinians, 48 represents 1948, the year of the nakba, or “catastrophe” in Arabic, when the state of Israel was created.

The unveiling of the logo came just days before Mr Abbas vowed to have Hamas renounce violence and recognise Israel before any Palestinian unity deal was arranged.

Ido Zelkovitz, an expert on Fatah at Haifa University, told The Times of Israel that Fatah’s new logo might be part of an effort to win the hearts and minds of its constituency.

“Armed struggle is an integral part of Fatah’s founding ethos,” Mr Zelkovitz said. “The message is: if goals can’t be achieved through negotiations, the military option is always there… For Fatah, remaining weaponless is having no identity.”

Mashaal visit to Gaza welcomed by Hamas and Fatah

Orlando Radice — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 11:57:31 +0000

Hamas political chief, Khaled Mashaal, will visit the Gaza Strip for the first time today.

The exiled leader will join visiting Fatah chiefs to celebrate Hamas’s 25th anniversary and what is seen in Gaza as a victory for the Islamist movement in its recent conflict with Israel.

Mashaal’s visit coincides with Hamas’s internal elections but it is widely known that he has ambitions to head up a new, united Palestinian movement that brings together Hamas and Fatah under one roof.

The return of Mashaal is being greeted warmly by Palestinians on all sides of the political spectrum, making reconciliation appear a less remote possibility.

Mashaal played a crucial role in establishing the ceasefire with Israel last month. He also is the closest person in Hamas to the Emir of Qatar - who donated hundreds of millions of dollars to Gaza recently - as well as to Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

Palestinian analyst Hani al-Masri told the Times of Israel: “Egypt, Qatar and Turkey want Khaled Mashaal, simply because he is a moderate and can get things done between the West and the Islamists.”

Welcome to Porto Alegre, tropical hub for the global BDS movement

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 20:00:27 +0000

V The World Social Forum (WSF), founded in Porto Alegre in 2001 as the anti-globalisation campaigner’s answer to the capitalist Davos World Economic Forum, originally gave a voice to the world’s marginalised and downtrodden — indigenous peoples, trafficked women and children, disaster victims.

It has now been hijacked by the Palestine National Committee of Fatah, which this year sent a large delegation.
In its manifesto is a boycott of Israel, ending the Israel-European Union Free Trade Agreement and “supporting anti-Zionist Jews everywhere”.

Last weekend’s four-day gathering included 125 workshops on campaigns aimed at wreaking the greatest harm upon Israel and, by association, its Jewish and gentile supporters.

During the 10,000-strong march through downtown Porto Alegre, a sea of banners proclaimed “Scottish Palestine Campaign to Boycott Israel”; “Don’t Dance with Israeli Apartheid: Boycott Batsheva”; “Quebec Coalition against Apartheid Israel”; “Intifada in Porto Alegre”; “Indict Israel for War Crimes”; and “Queers and Queens Against Israel, Vancouver”. Stands sold Hizbollah and Hamas T-shirts, and caps emblazoned with “Imam Khomeini: Israel must be Wiped Out”.

Sessions at the conference included boycott planning; judicial measures against individual Israelis for war crimes; religious campaigns to undermine Christian friends of Israel; and projects for flotillas to penetrate Israel’s maritime waters.

Although the WSF takes place in Brazil, its incitement effect is worldwide. The JNF and Teva generic pharmaceuticals were two common campaign targets. Activists also took aim at Christian evangelicals, who were to be approached with the argument that the biblical narrative should be de-Judaised. “Chosen people” and “promised land” were picked out as racist, colonial concepts, to be expunged from Christian liturgy.

Brazilian anti-Zionist Jew Nathaniel Braia summed up this year’s WSF: “The cause of humanity today is Palestine, as in the past was the struggle against Nazism and South African apartheid.” For those active in the 1960s’ anti-apartheid struggle, this is an insult. Through the WSF’s European satellite, the ESF, Porto Alegre may soon arrive at a theatre near you.

Fatah founder taken out by IDF commando in cross-dress

Ben Hartman — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 23:45:55 +0000

Twelve years after he died, the words of a fabled IDF commando confirmed what few in the Middle East ever doubted: Israel carried out the hit on arch-terrorist and Fatah founder Khalil Ibrahim al-Wazir — aka Abu Jihad — at his Tunis villa in April 1988.

Last week, the IDF censor gave Yediot Aharonot the green light to publish the details of the assault led by the late Colonel Nachum Lev that fateful night. The Yediot story amounted to the first official Israeli confirmation of responsibility for the assassination.

The article, based on a series of phone interviews between Yediot correspondent Ronen Bergman and Lev in 2000, described what happened when the Israeli hit team landed on the beach in Tunis. Together with a commando dressed as a woman, Lev, who posed as the husband, walked up to al-Wazir’s house with a pistol hidden in a box of chocolates. The pair then stormed the house, with one team killing bodyguards and a gardener in the basement while the other team made for the stairwell.

Lev said he followed the team on the stairwell up to a bedroom, where he opened fire on al-Wazir with a long burst.

Al-Wazir is believed to have been responsible for some of the bloodiest terror attacks in the history of Israel, including the 1978 Coastal Road massacre in which 35 Israeli civilians were killed.

Mr Bergman said this week that he and Yediot had campaigned for six months to convince the IDF censor to allow the story to be published.