PPP: Recognition of Israel not discussed in Cairo

"The issue of whether a new Palestinian government will recognize the state of Israel was not discussed at the Palestinian unity talks in Cairo, the Secretary-General of the Palestinian People's Party, Bassam As-Salhi said on Thursday night.

As-Salhi disputed reports that tensions in the meetings between the rival factions centered on whether Hamas would formally recognize Israel.

In a televised interview As-Salhi said that the discussions centered around "the government's program and its ability" to solve the current crises in the West Bank and Gaza.

He also said there was an agreement to accept a one and a half year truce with Israel according to understandings Hamas had previously negotiated with Israel. He said a truce would allow Palestinian political processes to take their course.

The Palestinian unity talks adjourned on Thursday without a final agreement. Palestinian leaders did say that they had agreed in principle to form a coalition government that will prepare for new elections in January 2010. They also planned to continue negotiations at a later date that was not specified."

Source: Maan News Agency

Uproar over death of Hamas activist in PA prison

Several Palestinian organizations have protested the death of Hamas activist Abd aj-Jamil al-Haj in a PA prison on the West Bank. According to some claims, his death was result of torture. His family claims that he had been arrested for political reasons, and that no charges had been made against him.

The National and Islamic Forces (a broad coalition including both Hamas and PLO factions) has issued a call for forming an independent committee to investigate the circumstances of al-Haj's death. The PFLP has urged, supporting the call of the NIF, both the Hamas and Fatah movements to uphold the National Accord and Cairo Declaration. Secretaries of the Fatah movement in the West Bank has also called upon the PA to open an investigation into the matter.

On Opinion Polls

The Israeli media (such as Jerusalem Post, Haaretz) and some Hasbara bloggers has taken notice of a recent opinion poll by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion. The poll shows a sharp decline of support for Hamas after the Gaza massacre. Moreover the study shows an increase in support for Fatah in the Gaza strip.

Notably, the same Israeli media and Hasbara bloggers declined to show any major interest in the JMCC opinion poll published last week (which would almost diametrically opposite trends in shifts in support of Hamas and Fatah). It should be noted that the JMCC poll had 1,198 respondents whilst the PCPO had 673 respondents. No opinion poll is 100% accurate, but I'd say spontaneously that the JMCC poll had a far wider sample and is thus more credible. The JMCC poll also had more concrete questions, than the vague 'identification' of political parties used in the PCPO poll. In 2006, the PCPO underestimated Hamas vote level by 15%.

Palestinian Opinion Poll: Increasing support for Hamas, Haniyeh the most trusted Palestinian politician, majority now supports rocket launches

In the wake of the Gaza massacre, the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center has released an interesting opinion poll. The polls consists of 1,198 interviews with randomly selected residents in the West Bank and Gaza, and is a follow-up on earlier political opinion polls.

The poll shows that 28.6% of respondents said that they intended to vote for Hamas in Legislative Council elections (if held today), as compared to 27.9% for Fatah and 14.6% for other parties. In November 2008 a similar question had been asked, then 36.8% had said they would have voted for Fatah (40% in Gaza) and 19.5% said they would have voted for Hamas (22.5% in Gaza).

A slightly differently worded question asked which political faction had the most trust amongst the respondents. In November 2008 Fatah had led with 31.3% of the respondents having most trust in them, followed by Hamas (16.6%), Islamic Jihad (2.4%) and the PFLP (2.3%). In January 2009 Hamas has overtaken the leading position, being the most trusted party amongst 27.7% of respondents. The runner-up is Fatah (26%), followed by the PFLP (3.3%) and Islamic Jihad (2.8%). Trust for Hamas has more than doubled in the West Bank.

In November 2008 the most trusted politician was Mahmoud Abbas, having the support of 15.9% of the respondents. In January 2009, the most trusted politician is Ismail Haniyeh. Haniyeh gets the trust of 21.1% (up from 13.8% in November 2008), compared to 13.4% trusting Abbas. In both the November 2008 and January 2009 surveys, Marwan Barghouti is the third most trusted politician.

50.8% of respondents (52.8% in the West Bank, 47.3% in Gaza) said that rocket launches from Gaza into Israel helped the Palestinian cause, whilst 20.8% (16.2% in the West Bank, 28.6% in Gaza) considered them harmful. In April 2008, 39.3% (34.6% in the West Bank, 47.4% in Gaza) of respondents had stated that rocket launches from Gaza was a useful form of resistance, whilst 35.7% (38.3% in West Bank, 31.2% in Gaza) considered them futile.

89% of respondents said that they were satisfied with Turkey's role during the bombings, whilst 80% were satisfied with the role of Venezuela. 96.3% were dissatisfied with the role of the United States.

News links: 1, 2, 3, 4

Four Palestinian political parties call upon Hamas to stop infringements of people's liberties in the Gaza strip

Four Palestinian political parties, namely the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Palestinian People's Party and the Islamic Jihad Movement, have issued a joint call appealing to Hamas to cease its "practices of abuse against the citizens" of the Gaza Strip. The appeal was issued at a joint meeting of the four political groups in the Gaza Strip. The four groups also formed a joint committee in order to "strengthen the steadfastness of our people and get rid of all the wrong and destructive practices damaging the national unity".

According the PFLP politburo member Dr. Rabah Muhanna, the conduct of the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip has a negative impact on the unity of the resistance of the Palestinian people in Gaza. The PFLP has noted that various Gaza residents have been shot in their legs or severely beaten in the recent past. The culprits are generally unknown, but accusations are often directed against Hamas and Fatah forces. The PFLP also highlights restrictions put by the Hamas movement on the work of human rights NGOs as well as politically motivated detentions in the Gaza Strip.

Separately, the jailed PFLP General Secretary Ahmad Sa'adat has stated that the failure to reconcile political differences between Palestinians will only benefit Israel.

Source: PFLP website, Maan News Agency, Svenska Amnesty on situationen i Gaza efter massakern, SvD

PFLP condemns Hamas' "repressive practices of intimidation" in Gaza

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has issued a statement today, calling on Hamas to end its "extrajudicial repressive practices of intimidation exercised by the organs of the Hamas movement in the Gaza strip". According to the statement, Hamas has attacked the PFLP cadres, subjecting them to kidnappings, severe beatings and shootings. The statement appealed to Hamas to immediately end its repressive actions against other Palestinian factions, and that all Palestinian groups should unite against the enemy.

The statement follows a statement issued on January 26 by the PFLP military wing, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, which denounced Hamas forces for having opened fire on a group of AAMB fighters whilst they were in the process of firing a rocket against the enemy.

The PFLP has also rejected calls for exiled Hamas leader Khalid Meshal to sideline the PLO.

PFLP has condemned the policy of political arrests by the Abbas regime in the West Bank as well.

Ibrahim Abu An-Naja, a senior official of the Fatah movement, on its behalf, has sought to downplay claims of Hamas executions of Fatah militants in the Gaza strip during the bombings. An-Naja confirms that there were cases in which Fatah militants had been targetted by Hamas forces in the Gaza strip, but that number were far lower than the internationally widely circulated claims.

Links: Notice at Maan News Agency, LV

Palestinians commemorate Holocaust

On the World Holocaust Remembrance Day, a Holocaust memorial was erected in Ni'lin, West Bank, Palestine. Hundreds of West Bank residents visited the site. One of the organizers of the event, Mohammad Amira, commented to Maan News Agency that

"We thought the public should understand the pain and suffering the Nazis caused the Jews ... Unfortunately, we are paying the price for the immense pain suffered by the Jews during the Holocaust."

"There is no comparison between our suffering and that of the Jewish people in the Holocaust, ... but everyone should understand that we are suffering too, as a result of what the Germans did to the Jews."

The Hamas movement, which de-facto governs the Gaza strip, had publicly denounced the Holocaust in mid-2008, stating that the Nazi atrocities

"was not only a crime against humanity but one of the most abhorrent crimes in modern history. ... And at the same time as we unreservedly condemn the crimes perpetrated by the Nazis against the Jews of Europe, we categorically reject the exploitation of the Holocaust by the Zionists to justify their crimes and harness international acceptance of the campaign of ethnic cleansing and subjection,"

Cease-fire spoilers? Provocateurs?

Ma'an News Agency reports that the Hizbullah Brigades of Palestine has declared that they have fired five rockets against Israeli targets since the declaration of unilateral cease-fire by the Palestinian factions yesterday.

I will be quite honest, until two days ago i myself had never heard of the 'Hizbullah Brigades of Palestine' (كتائب حزب الله فلسطين). Apparently they declared their existance in October 2008, stating that they were independent of and neutral towards all existing political factions in Palestine. When the reknowned Arabic daily ash-Sharq al-Awsat obtained the founding declaration of the organization, it added that the reliability of the declaration could not be confirmed.

Soon after its existance was declared, the 'Hizbullah Brigades of Palestine' launched a rocket towards Sderot (in violation of the Hamas-sponsored unilateral cease-fire). The Jerusalem Post were quick to assert that this was part of the 'growing al-Qaeda threat to Israel'.

At the time of the declaration of 'Hizbullah Brigades of Palestine', Hamas publicly declared that there was no such organization in Gaza and accused it of being a creation of the Israeli intelligence services. Another Hamas commentary speculated that Fatah could have been the authors of the founding statement. The following day, published at a pro-Fatah website, the 'Hizbullah Brigades Palestine' replied that the group was attracting Hamas followers disagreeing with the then cease-fire policy upheld by Hamas.

This might be a bit speculatory, but wouldn't a small unknown Islamist terrorist group firing rockets unto Sderot, in violation of the cease-fire declarations, provide a perfect excuse for Israel to resume its aggression on Gaza? In other words, an agent provocateur in action. We should not be to quick to draw conclusions, but we should also be vigilant to all deceptive tactics of the enemy. We must not forget how Israel contributed to the emergence of Hamas, in order to challenge the PLO within the Palestinian community in the 1980s. If there would be 'al-Qaeda presence' (a designation that is by its nature ambigous, since there is no centralized al-Qaeda organization as of today) in Gaza it could perhaps legitimize further Israeli bloodsheding, at least in the eyes of the American public opinion.

Do note that the Western media rarely bothers to distinguish which of the 10+ militant factions in Gaza claim responsibility for rocket launches. See for example article in SvD or Dagen.

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News links on Gaza: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

"Real friends of Israel rejects the war on Gaza"

An interesting commentary is published in DN, by Swedish journalist Peter Löfgren. Löfgren points to the fact that "Every time the leaders of Israel have used excessive military violence to 'create securtity', the result has instead been the emergence of new, yet more dangerous enemies", describing how the Israeli intelligence services stimulated the creation of Hamas as a counter-weight to the PLO during the 1980s, and how the brutalities in southern Lebanon radicalized the Lebanese Shi'ites and paved the way for Hezbollah to become a dominant force in Lebanese Shi'ite politics. In Löfgren's reasoning, the atrocities committed against the children of Gaza will in the end pose more dangers for Israel in a broader perspective.

More from the Swedish press: DN also reports that the number of causalities are about to reach 1,000 (see also 1, 2, 3, 4). SvD also carries a report on the Israeli refusal to let of medical personel and supplies enter Gaza. HD.se has an article on the emerging calls for boycotts of Israel, whilst SMP has an article on the sports boycott of Israel. The Evangelical daily Dagen, tries to find a silver-lining in the arrival of some aid deliveries.

Hamas and the recognition of Israel

In days like these, when the friends of the Israeli war machine desperately seek to legimatize the mass killings in Gaza, the argument about the non-recognition of the state of Israel by Hamas keeps popping up a lot in Western media. This is of course an attempt to create a side-track in the debate, diverting attention from what's happening on the ground in Gaza.

Somehow, the non-recognition of the state of Israel is presented as an underlying intention of Hamas to destroy Israel and conduct genocide on its population. But whilst Qassam rockets can seriously injure and at times kill people, does anyone seriously believe that Hamas would be in position to dismantle the entire Israeli state and military apparatus through launching home-made rockets?

When studying the documents and discourse of Hamas (short for 'Islamic Resistance Movement'), one should remember that Hamas caters to a constituency that differs starkly from the mainstream political debate in the West. Whilst secular Palestinian liberation movements use discourses of motifs to which Western progressives can easily relate, Hamas uses a discourse packed with religious motifs. The historical and cultural references used by Hamas are at times difficult to understand without also putting them into their context and references to Islamic history. Bluntly translated and consciously misquoted by Israeli sources, they come off as violent and militaristic.

As to the concrete issue of recognition, I think its important to go into some dept about what the political leadership of Hamas says about the possibility of recognizing Israel. Hamas considers that recognition between Israel and an independent Palestinian state should be mutual, Hamas won't recognize Israel unless there is an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. That is quite far from 'destroying Israel', as Hamas has stated that it seeks to establish a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders (see article in Haaretz).

There is a difference between Hamas and the PLO in this regard. The PLO has recognized Israel since 1988. On the other hand, twenty years later Israel still haven't recognized the independence of Palestine. One can thus ask, what incentives that could be given for Hamas to do the same?

If Western politicians, journalists, etc., feel that it is essential that Hamas (which is a political party, not a state) issues a 'recognition' of Israel, they should also ask Kadima, Likud and the Israeli Labour Party whether they are willing to recognize a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders? The postures of Hamas might be far from perfect, but in this regard they are far more advanced than the mainstream Israeli parties.