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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| PRC threatens life of PM Fayad |
| 2007-07-29 |
| The government of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayad came under heavy criticism over the weekend from Hamas and other radical groups for failing to mention the "armed resistance" in its platform. One group threatened to kill the "traitor" Fayad and his colleagues in Ramallah, while another said it would step up its efforts to bring down his government. The threats against Fayad are the worst since he was appointed as prime minister last month. PA security officials here told The Jerusalem Post that they were taking the threats very seriously and that measures had already been implemented to protect Fayad and other top figures. Hamas, in another act of defiance against Fayad's West Bank government, on Saturday started paying salaries to some 10,000 PA civil servants in the Gaza Strip who did not receive their payments because of their affiliation with Hamas. On Friday, Fayad's government published its platform, which does not include any reference to the mukawama (a term generally associated with armed struggle) against Israel. Instead, the government reiterated its commitment to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's call for a "popular resistance against the Israeli occupation." The new manifesto stated that any peace agreement with Israel must be designed along the pre-1967 borders and that Jerusalem should be the capital of both Israel and any future Palestinian state. "We were not surprised by the Fayad government's decision to drop the armed resistance from its platform, because this is a government that works according to an American and Israeli agenda," said Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip. "If Fayad thinks that he can erase the word mukawama with ink he's mistaken. This word was written with the blood of our martyrs." Abu Zuhri expressed "astonishment" that Fatah had agreed to the platform. "We urge Fatah to take a clear and brave stance toward the policy of the Fayad government, which is acting against the national aspirations of our people." Abu Mujahed, spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, an alliance of various armed groups in the Gaza Strip, accused Fayad of "legitimizing the occupation and of surrendering Jerusalem and the rest of the territories to the enemy." Dubbing Fayad a "traitor," Abu Mujahed said the armed resistance had succeeded in "blocking the Zionist project for many years." Fayad, he added, may drop anything he wants from his platform, "but the Palestinians and their resistance movements and thousands of prisoners will always have their own platform. No one will be able to spoil our real platform. The Israeli enemy has failed over the past decades to end the armed struggle, and Fayad won't succeed in doing so." Abu Abir, a notorious warlord in the Gaza Strip, threatened that his men would target Fayad and "his treacherous gang" in the West Bank. "We will target them in the field the same way we attack Israel," he said in response to the government's failure to endorse the armed struggle. "We promise to put an end to all the American-backed Palestinian personalities in the near future because of their decision to side with the Israeli enemy." The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Islamic Jihad also condemned the Fayad government, vowing to continue terror attacks on Israel. "Who does this government represent," asked Khaled al-Batsh, a senior Islamic Jihad leader in the Gaza Strip. "If Salaam Fayad continues to ignore the desire of the Palestinians and insists on dropping the armed struggle from his platform, then he should search for another people to govern." |
| Posted by:Fred |