Both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad have not yet been invited to participate in a new round of Palestinian internal dialogue. The meeting, whose goal is to try to reach a unified consensus on the way the conflict with Israel is to be handled, is scheduled to take place next week, sources told Al Bawaba.
“So far we have not received an invitation. We heard about the planned dialogue only through the media,” said Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi.
Rantisi also declined to comment to Al Bawaba when he was asked about whether his organization would be invited to the meeting, only saying “such a meeting is still unconfirmed, as only the media has mentioned it so far.”
On January 27th of this year, twelve Palestinian factions concluded talks in the Egyptian capital without issuing a final decree, but only an announcement that they would present on February 4th their response to an Egyptian proposal presented to them during the session. The Egyptian proposal suggested that Palestinians halt military operations against Israel. It is believed that the planned talks next week would be a follow-up meeting on the January session.
Rantisi believes that any new round of talks will be ‘useless’ due to the ‘agenda’ the new Palestinian Prime Minster Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) intends to pursue and the opposition to it by several Palestinian factions.
Earlier, Abu Mazen did meet with Palestinian faction leaders prior to forming his new cabinet, however his talks failed as his efforts focused on ‘demilitarizing the Intifada’.
“We should be frank [with ourselves], as Abu Mazen met with us prior to being designated Prime Minister and prior to forming his government. We expressed our opinion to him regarding both the ‘roadmap’ and the option of [military] resistance, but he instead committed himself fully to the roadmap. This makes any future dialogue a ‘hostage’ of his commitments.”
For its part, Islamic Jihad denied receiving any invitation to participate in the proposed dialogue, and for that matter have not heard of any official announcement regarding such a meeting. Speaking to Al Bawaba, Islamic Jihad spokesman in the West Bank Nafeth Azzam said, “we haven’t received any invitation for any dialogue however we will consider such an invitation.” “We respond positively to any form of dialogue as it would be in the interest of consolidating the Palestinian position…particularly crucial during such a sensitive time,” he added.
Azzam believes, “dialogue amongst Palestinians is badly needed in order to have a unified stance to counter the recent developments in the region and the ongoing Israeli aggression.”
On the other hand, Palestinian Legislative Council and Fatah member, Hatem Abdel Kader, expected the dialogue to begin soon reiterating, “All Palestinian factions would be invited to participate.” “Abu Mazen reassured us that he would resume dialogue as soon as possible whether inside our country or abroad,” he added.
Abdel Kader, speaking to Al Bawaba, also said that the Legislative Council members suggested to Abu Mazen the need for dialogue before taking any action on the ground.”
He pointed out that the forthcoming talks, which are expected to define the future Fatah- endorsed Palestinian agenda, would address three main issues. The first would be the ‘unification’ of the Palestinian political stance towards the Palestinian ‘Issue’ and its future shape.
The second issue would address how internal Palestinian affairs are to be run, and how all factions are given the same equal opportunity to participate in the PLO’s framework and forthcoming legislative, presidential and municipal elections. The third issue, which Abdel Kader views as the most important, would tackle how the “conflict with Israel” is to be managed going forward in a unified manner.
In this last context, Abdel Qader confirmed that Fatah “will not submit pre-planned proposals, but will rather discuss the mechanisms with which Palestinians can enhance their position politically, internationally and on the ground.” He said “the participants in the new talks will discuss what is good and what is bad for Palestinians…we may reach an agreement on halting military operations against Israeli civilians inside the green line [post 48 Israeli borders] and continue [military] resistance against settlers and Israeli soldiers within the 1967 borders…this is one of the proposals that we may present.”
However, the Palestinian legislator did express his pessimism towards the anticipated talks in light of the ‘attitude’ of several Palestinian factions.
