Palestina

De Electronic Intifada: 'Palestinian Authority chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas is pushing the internal Palestinian situation towards a dangerous and unnecessary crisis. He has called a referendum supposedly to gain public endorsement for a document written by Hamas and Fatah members held in Israeli jails which calls for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel in all the territories occupied in 1967. But Abbas' ploy has nothing to do with hastening the creation of such a state, and everything to do with Fatah's inability to come to terms with its defeat in last January's legislative elections.Without consulting PA prime minister Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, Abbas announced that Hamas would have ten days to accept the prisoners' document without any changes or he would call a referendum. Hamas made clear that it views the referendum as illegal. Palestinian law makes no provision for referendums, and only the legislative council, in which Hamas has a huge majority, can amend the law. No matter; Abbas, like President Bush, can seem to find powers to do anything he wants as the need arises. Following the collapse of talks between Hamas and Fatah on June 5, Abbas announced that he would go ahead with the referendum by "presidential decree." The next morning he announced a three-day extension of his deadline to allow for "dialogue," but made clear that Hamas had to take or leave the document as is.Bypassing the Hamas-led authority, Abbas called together the PLO executive committee, unelected and unaccountable except to itself, but dominated by his allies, to authorize the referendum. This is in line with Abbas' recent claims that it is the PLO, and not the PA, that is the true representative of Palestinians. This could be convincing except for the fact that since signing the 1993 Oslo Accord, Fatah leaders have dismantled the PLO as a truly representative body and invested all their efforts into building up the PA as their powerbase. Once they lost their grip on the PA, they suddenly rediscovered the PLO. But the lack of sincerity can be measured by the fact that Abbas has made no mention whatsoever of including all Palestinians -- the majority of whom live in forced exile and diaspora -- in the referendum. No referendum carried out only in the occupied territories can represent the will of Palestinians as a whole.' Lees verder: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4765.shtml Het is inderdaad een absurde zet van de kliek rond Abbas, ook gezien het feit dat de Fatah-top wegens politieke incompetentie en verregaande corruptie door de bevolking is weggestemd.