Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Arabia

UAE foreign minister meets with Palestinian official in Abu Dhabi

2023-12-22

[GEO.TV] The United Arab Emirates (UAE) foreign minister has met a senior Palestinian Authority (PA) official in Abu Dhabi where they discussed international efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, the Emirati state news agency reported on Thursday.

Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan met Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Secretary General Hussein Sheikh

Whoops! That figleaf is slipping, guys...

to also discuss the humanitarian crisis in the coastal enclave.

In the meeting, Sheikh Abdullah stressed the importance of prioritising negotiations towards a framework for a two-state peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians, WAM reported.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

US envoy Haley leads anti-Palestinian 'crusade': PLO

2017-07-06

[Al Jazeera] A senior Palestinian official has blasted US President Donald Trump's UN envoy, accusing her of carrying out a "crusade" against the Palestinian people.

Hanan Ashrawi, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), said on Wednesday that Nikki Haley was leading a "one-woman crusade... against Palestine and the Palestinian people individually and collectively".

"Through an obsessive and targeted campaign of intimidation and threats, Miss Haley's crusade does not miss an opportunity to put pressure on anyone that seeks to challenge Israeli impunity," she added.

Ashrawi said Haley was echoing remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon defended Haley's work.

"Small wonder Hanan Ashrawi is unhappy - @nikkihaley fights for a fair treatment of #Israel, exactly what the #Palestinians don't want...," he wrote on Twitter.

Palestinian officials have privately expressed increasing alarm at the Trump administration's pro-Israel stance as the US president seeks to restart peace negotiations.

And so they should be -- President Trump is changing everything.

However, until Wednesday they had publicly refrained from criticising senior US officials.

The Palestinians eagerly grasp the opportunity to lose another opportunity. Like scorpions, they have the virtue of consistency.

Haley visited Israel and the Palestinian territories in June.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Cracks emerging in Palestinian national unity pact already

2014-04-26

Cracks have appeared in the fledgling national reconciliation between moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement and the militant Hamas group over whether the unity government to be formed within five weeks will recognise Israel.

A day after Israel suspended the troubled Middle East peace talks in response to the Fatah-Hamas agreement reached on Wednesday, saying it would not deal with a government that is backed by Hamas, elements within Fatah took pains to stress that the new government will recognise Israel and meet two other conditions set by the international community for dealing with Hamas: renouncing violence and honouring previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements.

It still remains unclear whether for Mr Abbas the agreement with Hamas was designed as a tactic to pressure Israel into meeting his demands to extend peace talks or a more strategic move based on the calculation that, nine years into his term, he needs to hold elections to renew his mandate. Polling has been impossible as long as the Hamas-Fatah rift persists because Hamas controls the Gaza Strip and can thwart it.

The next five weeks will test the durability of the reconciliation agreement. Mr Abbas concluded previous reconciliation deals with Hamas in Cairo in 2011 and Doha in 2012, but the two sides never implemented them, raising the possibility Mr Abbas had no intention of following through on this one either. In any event, judging by Israel's reaction, including economic sanctions on the Palestinian Authority, he seems to have miscalculated in thinking he could simultaneously deal with both Hamas and Israel. Israeli officials have said the suspension of talks is in effect until it becomes clear whether the new government recognises Israel and meets the international conditions.

A senior Palestinian official was quoted by the Times of Israel website yesterday as saying that Mr Abbas and Fatah ''won't agree to complete the reconciliation process'' unless Hamas agrees that the new government ''accepts the two state solution-Israel and Palestine-along the 1967 lines''. The new government would also ''adhere to the conditions of the Middle East quartet [the EU, UN, Russia and US], recognise Israel, ratify all signed agreements and renounce violence,'' the official said.

According to the office of the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Robert Serry, Mr Abbas himself offered identical assurances about the new government when the two men met on Thursday. However, the view in Hamas, which opted for the reconciliation pact partly to improve its standing after the loss of its key ally with the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt, is different. Contradicting what Mr Abbas has been saying, a senior Hamas leader in the West Bank, Hassan Youssef, ruled out any recognition of Israel by the new government. Asked during an interview with The Independent whether the new government, which will be comprised of technocrats and headed by Mr Abbas, will accept the quartet's conditions, Mr Youssef said: ''This is not its role. Its role is not political. Its goal is to run matters as a transition stage until elections. Its goal is just to supervise the elections, no more.''

''Are the quartet conditions the Quran?'' Mr Youssef continued. ''Are they the New Testament? These conditions must change because they are unjust and what is needed are conditions that respect the circumstances and choices of the Palestinian people. These conditions are unacceptable to us.''

About recognising Israel, the Hamas leader said: ''The [Abbas-led] Palestine Liberation Organisation is the one that negotiates with Israel and recognised Israel. It is not required of every Palestinian party to recognise Israel just as it is not required of every Israeli party to have the same views as other Israeli parties.''

Mr Youssef, who has served a total of 17 years in Israeli prisons and is considered a pragmatist in Hamas, said that the PLO made a mistake by recognising Israel. ''Hamas does not want to give an advance position on this. The PLO gave an advance position and Israel gave it nothing. If Israel recognises all the rights of the Palestinian people and meets all its demands and we can see it on the ground then for every event, there is a response.'' He declined to limit resistance to occupation to non-violent popular protests as Mr Abbas did in his talks with Mr Serry.''We as a Palestinian people whose land is occupied and whose holy places are occupied have the right to defend ourselves. We agree with popular resistance but all options are before the Palestinian people.''

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Palestinians hope Kerry will renew peace push 'in days'

2014-04-06

The Palestinians want US efforts to salvage the peace process to continue, a senior official said on Wednesday, just hours after they renewed controversial moves to seek international recognition.

"We hope (US Secretary of State John) Kerry's efforts will be renewed in the coming days," Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation's executive committee, told reporters in Ramallah. "Kerry knows the reality. We don't want these efforts to finish."

Honest, we'll hold the football in place this time, Charlie Brown."

Late on Tuesday, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said he had begun steps to join several UN agencies and ratify international treaties, angering Israel and prompting Kerry to cancel a trip to Ramallah on Wednesday.

The announcement was a blow to Kerry's ~~ineffectual~~ frenetic efforts to resolve a dispute over Palestinian prisoners and find a way to extend the fragile peace talks beyond a looming April 29 deadline.

Abed Rabbo said the Palestinian move was "a response to Israel's flagrant violation of the agreement" under which it would release prisoners if the Palestinians refrained from seeking further UN recognition.

But Israel says its release of each batch of prisoners was conditional on progress in negotiations, which is not currently evident.

"The government of Israel did not release the prisoners, without any reason or even any excuse for not doing so," Abed Rabbo said.

They did, you just didn't want to listen...

But he suggested they would not be quitting talks before the deadline.

"The Palestinian leadership respects its commitments and wants the political process to continue, but we want a real political process, without tricks," he said. "We will continue our efforts with the US administration, and will do everything we can to remove all obstacles."

Except make any concessions of any kind...

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Israel ministry paper proposes 'toppling' Abbas over UN bid

2012-11-14

A position paper by Israel's foreign ministry proposes "toppling" President Mahmoud Abbas if Palestine's bid for UN non-member state status is approved.

The internal document says it is "the only option" if deterrence efforts do not succeed, despite the consequences.

It also suggests that the Palestinians should be offered immediate recognition of statehood within provisional borders as an incentive to drop their UN bid.

Mr Abbas plans to submit a request to the UN General Assembly on 29 November.

Currently, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), the umbrella group which represents most Palestinian factions and conducts negotiations with Israel, only has "permanent observer" status at the UN.

Mr Abbas, who is chairman of the PLO and president of the Palestinian Authority, wants Palestine to be admitted as a non-member observer state based on the boundaries which existed before Israel occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip during the 1967 war.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Abbas threatens Iran summit boycott over Hamas

2012-08-25

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will boycott the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Iran if his Islamist rival Ismail Haniya of Hamas attends, a minister told AFP on Saturday.

"President Abbas will not take part in the Non-Aligned summit if Haniya is present, no matter what form his attendance takes," foreign minister Riyad al-Malki said in Ramallah, headquarters of the Palestinian Authority.

A Hamas spokesman earlier on Saturday said Haniya would attend the August 30-31 conference in Tehran "in accordance with the invitation from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad."

The statement from Taher al-Nunu, a spokesman for the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, did not say when Haniya would leave the Palestinian enclave for the conference or give any further details.

In Iran, foreign ministry spokesman Rahmin Mehmanparast said Haniya had been invited to the gathering as a "special guest."

Abbas heads a rival West Bank-based administration, and said last month that he had accepted an invitation to attend the NAM summit and make his first visit to the Islamic republic.

"At a time when (Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor) Lieberman is waging an aggressive political campaign, the invitation to Haniya to attend the NAM summit indicates that Tehran has joined the hostile Israeli chorus," the Palestine Liberation Organisation executive committee said in a statement.

On Thursday, Lieberman said Abbas was waging a form of "diplomatic terror" against Israel that was as dangerous as the violent threat posed by Hamas.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Tony Blair's job in jeopardy as Palestinians accuse him of bias

2011-09-28

Tony Blair's future as Middle East peace envoy was in jeopardy after the Palestinian Authority said it was set to sever all contact with him because of his "bias" towards Israel.

The senior echelons of the Palestine Liberation Organisation are expected to meet in the coming days to discuss a proposal to declare Mr Blair persona non grata, officials said.

Predicting unanimous support for the motion from the entire Palestinian leadership, they said the intention was to isolate the former prime minister to such an extent that his position would become untenable.

Mr Blair has been viewed with an element of distrust by some Palestinians ever since his appointment as the envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East the mediating body comprising the United States, the EU, the UN and Russia on the day he left Downing Street in June 2007.

But antagonism has mounted over allegations that he lobbied European powers to vote against a Palestinian bid for statehood submitted to the United Nations in New York last week. "We have been extremely unhappy and dissatisfied with Mr Blair's performance since he became envoy, but particularly in the past few weeks," a senior Palestinian official said.

No formal request for Mr Blair's dismissal has been made to the Quartet, and it is likely the Palestinians will come under intense US and European pressure to change course and desist from making a public pronouncement on his ostracism.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Paleos going ahead with UN statehood bid

2011-06-27

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said on Sunday that with no renewal of peace talks on the horizon, the Palestinians would pursue their unilateral bid for recognition in September.

I say that if negotiations have failed we will go to the United Nations for membership, Abbas told a meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and his Fatah party. Until now there have been no new incentives to return to negotiations.

Abbas had indicated that the Palestinians would be willing to give up the September bid for recognition of a Palestinian state if long dormant peace talks with Israel could be resurrected.

While many states have indicated they will support the bid, including France and Britain, it has faced strong opposition from Israel, the US and Germany, who said any progress toward a Palestinian state must be made through a negotiated agreement.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said that granting UN membership to a Palestinian state could actually help bring the sides back to the negotiating table.

We do not think that there is a contradiction between the two demands, he told AFP. This measure is inevitable if (the international community) wants to preserve the peace process.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Mishal: talks may deal Palestinians fatal blow

2010-08-26

[Gulf Times] Hamas leader Khalid Mishal said yesterday that peace talks between Palestinians and Israel next week could deal a fatal blow to the Palestinian cause.

Mishal said in a speech in Damascus that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was too weak to stand up to Israel and negotiate a just deal at the talks in Washington on September 2.

"If the talks succeed they will succeed to Israeli standards and liquidate the Palestinian cause. They'll give us parts of 1967 lands. They'll draw the borders as they want and they'll confiscate our sovereignty," said Mishal, who lives in exile in Syria, along with several Palestinian leaders.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Abbas are set to meet with US President Barak Obama to restart direct talks after months of indirect negotiations.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah of Jordan have also been invited to the summit.

Mishal, speaking at an Iftar, called on the two Arab leaders to turn down the invite.

"I appeal to President Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah II not to back these negotiations which are rejected by the Palestinians," he said.

"The results of these negotiations will be catastrophic for the interests and the security of Jordan and Egypt," Mishal said.

He insisted that the talks are only "the fruit of an agreement" between Obama and Netanyahu.

Mishal said there was "no consensus on the negotiations" among the Palestinians and that Abbas was heading to the talks under duress from Washington.

He called the talks a "farce," saying the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) had not given its approval.

Abbas's negotiation strategy has long been condemned by the Hamas Islamist group which seized control of the Gaza Strip from him in 2007 and is deeply hostile to Israel.

Hamas does not rule out peace talks with Israel if they realise what it considers Palestinian rights.

Hamas has said it could live peacefully alongside Israel if Israel withdrew from all Palestinian land it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war. Hamas's 1988 founding charter, however, calls for the destruction of Israel and for restoration of all of British mandate Palestine.

"Our grievance, in a nutshell, is occupation. Our project is resistance," said Mishal.

Mishal asked Abbas and his Fatah faction to join Hamas in adopting a Palestinian strategy that does not drop diplomacy but concentrates on the "option on resistance and holding on to inalienable Palestinian rights."

He said Palestinian negotiators were not legitimate.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Palestinians say Arab states cutting aid

2010-08-20

Arab states have cut financial aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) so far this year, according to PA figures seen by Reuters, and the United Nations has warned of a looming Palestinian cash crisis.

"The Arabs are not paying. We urge them to meet their financial pledges," said Saleh Rafat, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation's executive committee and one of the few Palestinian officials willing to speak out on the matter.

Arab government officials contacted by Reuters declined to comment on the issue. The failure of some wealthy Arab states to pay up is frustrating Western governments, which are big contributors to the Palestinian territories, and leaving officials in the West Bank with a budget headache.

Some Palestinian officials speculate Arab states might be withholding the cash to try to persuade the Palestinian factions Fatah, which controls the West Bank, and Hamas, which controls Gaza, towards reconciliation.

Palestinian Finance Ministry figures seen by Reuters showed the PA had received $583.5 million in budget support so far in 2010. Only 22 percent came from Arab donors, the rest coming from international donors including the EU and US.

In the last three years, the most Arab states have paid in any one year was $525.9 million, contributed in 2008, the figures show. Gulf oil exporters Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been the main Arab contributors since 2007. But in 2010, both have fallen well short of previous support.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Abbas resists US pressure for direct talks

2010-08-03

~~Ineffectual~~ Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told a visiting US official on Monday that Israel must commit to clear terms of reference for peace talks before the start of direct negotiations, Palestinian officials said.

US President Barack Obama's administration is putting pressure on the Palestinian president to agree to direct talks, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is ready to begin immediately.

US official David Hale, a deputy to Obama's Middle East envoy George Mitchell, had asked Abbas when direct talks could begin, said members of the Palestine Liberation Organisation's (PLO) executive committee briefed by Abbas.

Mitchell has conducted five rounds of indirect talks between Abbas and Netanyahu since May. Obama has said he wants direct talks to begin by September.

"The president answered Hale that we, in principle are not against direct negotiations," Saleh Rafat, an executive committee members said. "However we should hear from the Israelis the terms of reference for the negotiations and a halt to settlement activities," he said. Netanyahu has said the Palestinians can bring all issues to the table and accuses Abbas of wasting time.

The Palestinians aim to found their state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital. Israel occupied the territories in a 1967 war.

Abbas has sought progress in the indirect negotiations before any move to direct talks. He has spoken of unprecedented international pressure to convince him to resume direct peace talks with Israel.

Last week, the Arab League's peace process committee approved a move to direct negotiations when Abbas sees fit. The PLO executive committee said in a statement after its meeting that the Palestinian demands were a guarantee for the success of future direct negotiations.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Journalist says only truth will set Palestine free

2010-05-19

Hat tip Michael Totten at Instapundit.

THE Palestinian diaspora in Australia is facing an unexpected catastrophe. Normally, May 15, Israel's Independence Day, is the most important day of their year for celebrating their victimhood: the catastrophe, as they see it, of the founding of Israel.

But, this year, visiting fresh from the streets of Gaza, Ramallah and Jerusalem is Khaled Abu Toameh, an Israeli Arab Muslim journalist, who declares: "I'd rather be a second-class citizen in Israel than a first-class citizen in any Arab country."

And some in the diaspora are not happy about his visit. Ali Kazak, a former ambassador for the Palestine Liberation Organisation, circulated an email this week accusing Abu Toameh of being an "Israeli propagandist" on the "Israeli payroll" and warning people not to be misled by him.

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