NOVANEWS
A woman waves the national flag as she celebrates the agreement
to form a unity government in Gaza on April 23, 2014.
(AFP Mahmud Hams)
to form a unity government in Gaza on April 23, 2014.
(AFP Mahmud Hams)
JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel’s security cabinet was to meet on Thursday morning to weigh its response to a unity deal struck between the PLO and Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted angrily to Wednesday’s agreement between the rival factions accusing Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas of choosing “Hamas, not peace”.
Public radio said ministers were likely to announce fresh retaliatory measures on top of a raft of financial sanctions unveiled this month when the Palestinians applied to join 15 international treaties.
“By tying itself to Hamas, the Palestinian leadership is turning its back on peace,” a Netanyahu aide said.
PLO official Saeb Erekat slammed Israel’s response to the unity deal, saying that “Mr. Netanyahu and his government were using Palestinian division as an excuse not to make peace.”
“During the past nine months of negotiations, Mr. Netanyahu’s government has increased settlement construction, home demolitions, killings, detentions and military raids,” he said in a statement.
The Israeli government has refused to present a map showing the PLO where the borders of the Israeli state are and has refused to recognize Palestine’s right to exist on the 1967 border, he added.
“And the moment we sign a national reconciliation agreement upon a single political platform that recognizes all previously signed agreements between Palestine and Israel, Mr. Netanyahu and his government blame us for the failure of talks,” he said.
Israel already announced on April 10 that it was freezing the transfer of some $111 million in taxes it collects on behalf of Abbas’s Palestinian Authority, which account for some two-thirds of its revenues.
The deal between the Palestinian leadership and Hamas came as US-brokered peace talks which opened last July teetered on the brink of collapse just days before their scheduled April 29 conclusion.
US envoy Martin Indyk has held repeated meetings with the two sides in a last-ditch bid to salvage the negotiations.
Erekat denied any three-way meeting has been planned for Wednesday but acknowledged he would meet Indyk on Thursday without the Israelis.
US warning
Abbas says he will not extend the negotiations unless Israel agrees to a freeze on all settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, including annexed East Jerusalem, and frees a group of Palestinian prisoners who had been earmarked for release this month.
He has also demanded the two sides launch straight into negotiations on the future borders of the Palestinians’ promised state.
Israel has dismissed all three conditions.
Washington warned Wednesday that the deal between the Palestinian leadership and Hamas threatened to scupper any chance of rescuing the talks.
“It’s hard to see how Israel can be expected to negotiate with a government that does not believe in its right to exist,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
The division between Fatah and Hamas began in 2006, when Hamas won Palestinian legislative elections.
In the following year, clashes erupted between Fatah and Hamas, leaving Hamas in control of the Strip and Fatah in control of parts of the occupied West Bank.
The groups have made failed attempts at national reconciliation for years, most recently in 2012, when they signed two agreements — one in Cairo and a subsequent one in Doha — which have as of yet been entirely unimplemented.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted angrily to Wednesday’s agreement between the rival factions accusing Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas of choosing “Hamas, not peace”.
Public radio said ministers were likely to announce fresh retaliatory measures on top of a raft of financial sanctions unveiled this month when the Palestinians applied to join 15 international treaties.
“By tying itself to Hamas, the Palestinian leadership is turning its back on peace,” a Netanyahu aide said.
PLO official Saeb Erekat slammed Israel’s response to the unity deal, saying that “Mr. Netanyahu and his government were using Palestinian division as an excuse not to make peace.”
“During the past nine months of negotiations, Mr. Netanyahu’s government has increased settlement construction, home demolitions, killings, detentions and military raids,” he said in a statement.
The Israeli government has refused to present a map showing the PLO where the borders of the Israeli state are and has refused to recognize Palestine’s right to exist on the 1967 border, he added.
“And the moment we sign a national reconciliation agreement upon a single political platform that recognizes all previously signed agreements between Palestine and Israel, Mr. Netanyahu and his government blame us for the failure of talks,” he said.
Israel already announced on April 10 that it was freezing the transfer of some $111 million in taxes it collects on behalf of Abbas’s Palestinian Authority, which account for some two-thirds of its revenues.
The deal between the Palestinian leadership and Hamas came as US-brokered peace talks which opened last July teetered on the brink of collapse just days before their scheduled April 29 conclusion.
US envoy Martin Indyk has held repeated meetings with the two sides in a last-ditch bid to salvage the negotiations.
Erekat denied any three-way meeting has been planned for Wednesday but acknowledged he would meet Indyk on Thursday without the Israelis.
US warning
Abbas says he will not extend the negotiations unless Israel agrees to a freeze on all settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, including annexed East Jerusalem, and frees a group of Palestinian prisoners who had been earmarked for release this month.
He has also demanded the two sides launch straight into negotiations on the future borders of the Palestinians’ promised state.
Israel has dismissed all three conditions.
Washington warned Wednesday that the deal between the Palestinian leadership and Hamas threatened to scupper any chance of rescuing the talks.
“It’s hard to see how Israel can be expected to negotiate with a government that does not believe in its right to exist,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
The division between Fatah and Hamas began in 2006, when Hamas won Palestinian legislative elections.
In the following year, clashes erupted between Fatah and Hamas, leaving Hamas in control of the Strip and Fatah in control of parts of the occupied West Bank.
The groups have made failed attempts at national reconciliation for years, most recently in 2012, when they signed two agreements — one in Cairo and a subsequent one in Doha — which have as of yet been entirely unimplemented.
