Gaza Strip – Thousands of cheering Hamas supporters in Gaza on Wednesday burned effigies of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his senior aides in the rival Palestinian leadership in the West Bank, denouncing them as traitors.
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The protests came in response to reports by Al-Jazeera satellite TV about leaked documents from a decade of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Al-Jazeera, which has been releasing the documents gradually this week, says they show Abbas made far-reaching concessions on Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
Two-thirds of Gaza’s 1.5 million people are refugees from the 1948-49 war that followed Israel’s creation or their descendants.
A coffin draped with the photos of Abbas, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and chief negotiator Saeb Erekat also went up in flames during the march in the southern town of Rafah in Hamas-ruled Gaza.
Abbas has said he’s been the victim of a smear campaign and Al-Jazeera is distorting his positions. The Islamic militant group Hamas has seized the opportunity to drive home allegations that he has no mandate from the Palestinian people to make concessions.
Abbas’ term expired a year ago but he has not scheduled elections because Hamas is in control of Gaza and has said it would not cooperate. Also, Hamas won the last parliamentary elections in 2006, but Abbas dismissed the Hamas-led government after Hamas overran Gaza.
On Wednesday, several thousand marched in Rafah and the nearby town of Khan Younis.
In the Rafah march, Atallah Abu al-Suboh, a local Hamas leader, spoke to the crowd before the effigies, draped with Israeli flags, and the coffin were set ablaze. “Those gangs,” he said, pointing to the coffin, are not representing the Palestinian people.”
“Palestinians all over should take them away,” al-Suboh said. “No one has the right to compromise. No one has the right to give up our legitimate rights and principles.”
Hamas and Abbas have been bitter rivals since the Islamic militants wrested Gaza from the Palestinian president by force in 2007. Wednesday’s spectacle and tough language marked on of the harshest public assaults on Abbas by his rivals yet.
Before the marches, Erekat accused Al-Jazeera of incitement and putting his life at risk. Many of the leaked documents feature Erekat. “If you see Al-Jazeera, the style is telling people, ‘Saeb is guilty, execute him, and then after you execute him, give him an unfair trial,'” he told The Associated Press.
Erekat said he has not received death threats but was concerned nonetheless. “One has to keep in mind, you have a family, a wife and neighbors,” he said. “There is a price I am paying.”
Al-Jazeera has not commented on the accusations.
Some Palestinian officials have said they believe the documents were leaked by someone linked to the Negotiations Support Unit, a department that provides technical and research support and is headed by Erekat.
Erekat said the issue is under investigation but it was premature to hold his office responsible or point at suspects. He said that if it turns out his office was the source of the leak, he would take responsibility. He would not elaborate.
Since the start of the nightly broadcasts on Sunday, Abbas’ Fatah movement has rallied around him and the other negotiators. Abbas supporters marched toward Al-Jazeera’s main West Bank office in Ramallah on two occasions, chanting angry slogans. The office is under police guard around the clock, said police spokesman Adnan Damiri.
Al-Jazeera appears to have scaled back West Bank operations in recent days, with crews missing from key events. Damiri said police would provide an escort if Al-Jazeera asks for it.
In the West Bank city of Nablus, an office providing services to broadcasters was trashed by several young men Wednesday after they learned that a local academic had just filmed an interview with Al-Jazeera there.
Samir Khweireh, an employee in the Palmedia office, said the attackers broke a door, a camera, a computer and a printer after learning Al-Jazeera used the office. He said the office has since been closed.
Something tells me big changes is coming to the ME, let’s hope and pray that no harm will happen to our brethren.
solid times
I knew gaza was going to be next, thats the end of peace in the arab world (if there ever was any peace)
Maake Mitzrayim Bibchorayahem
Yep. And we’re supposed to live next to these animals. Doesn’t anyone besides us have eyes?
…and Tunisian Fever has reached Gaza. No big surprise here.
These are “our partners in peace”, people with whom we are supposed to be negotiating. I know that these are Hamas, Whether it is Abbas or Hamas, a wolf under sheep’s clothing is still a wolf. I wonder what our dear president is thinking about when he reads these news reports about the “sincere, moderate arabs being hung in effigy.” Does he realize that Abbas is a meaningless figurehead who couldn’t deliver an empty paper bag to the Israelis? Do the Israelis want to admit it to themselves that they are going to give away the store and get nothing in return? I wonder.
Rabosai:
We are witnessing anarchy gaining strength in this world. Many of us might be sitting here gloating in the internal strife in the Muslim world. But the same way that it was contagious, beginning in Tunisia, and now catching in Egypt and Gaza, it can spread elsewhere. Will revolt become the way of the world? This notion is frightening, though I find it consoling to recognize this as prelude to Moshiach.
The one good thing about it is, that Israel did not YET hand anything over. All the Nations were pressuring Israel to “work with Abbas”. Now Israel would be major fools to sit down with him. Israel just bought 5+ years for “negotiations” without lifting a finger. Etzbah Elokim He. Thank you Hashem!