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Thu, Nov 11, 2010 | news agencies

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speaks at a rally marking the sixth anniversary of Yasser Arafat's death, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Thursday, Nov. 11, 2010. Abbas on Thursday appealed to Israelis to choose peace over settlements, saying that opportunities for a peace deal must not be wasted.(AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Palestinians Commemorate the Sixth Anniversary of Arafat’s Death

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday commemorated the sixth anniversary of late leader Yasser Arafat’s death and asserted the Palestinians right to petition the United Nations Security Council to recognize a Palestinian state if Israel refuses to halt settlement construction in the West Bank and housing in east Jerusalem. But Abbas also said that the United States had described such a move as a unilateral action — a view echoed in Israel.

“We are thinking about this (idea), we didn’t begin yet, (but) this is considered a unilateral step,” Abbas said. But Abbas asked in his speech, “(The Israelis) on a daily basis commit unilateral moves, beginning with the separation wall, settlements, checkpoints, incursions, and killings… and this all is not called a unilateral move?”

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned wednesday that both sides should refrain from making moves that might undermine the stalled peace talks. Clinton held key talks Thursday with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as Jewish settlements building in the West Bank risked ending the latest Middle East peace negotiations.

“I have said repeatedly the prime minister and [Palestinian Authority] President [Mahmoud] Abbas are both very committed to the two-state solution and we are going to find a way forward,” she said as their meeting began in New York. [CNN, Nov 11, 2010]

On Wednesday, after a meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Abul Gheit, Clinton said, “We do not support unilateral steps by either party that would prejudge the outcome of such negotiations.” “There will be no progress until they actually come together and explore areas where there is agreement, and ways to narrow areas of disagreement.” [CNN, Nov 11, 2010]

Thursday, thousands of Palestinians waving Palestinian flags and the yellow banners of the Fatah party attended a central rally held in the Muqata, the compound that houses the seat of the Palestinian Authority government, in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Among the attendees were Palestinian officials, members of Fatah movement, which was founded by Arafat, and representatives of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), of which Arafat used to be its chairman.

During the rally, Mahmoud Abbas said that the Palestinian leadership will stick to Arafat’s oath to continue all needed efforts until the dream of establishing the Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital is achieved.

Abbas said that views in the United States and Europe had started to shift in favor of the Palestinians, but expressed frustration at recent U.S. opposition to the idea of taking the quest for statehood to the U.N. Security Council. “The world has started to change. Europe has started to change and America has started to change,” said Abbas, whose administration depends on political and financial backing from the United States and the European Union.
“True, it is still at the stage of slogans, such as ‘We support the two-state solution’ and ‘the establishment of a Palestinian state is in the vital national security interest of the United States’,” he added. [Al-Arabiya, nov 11, 2010]

“Our position holds,” Abbas said, “Settlements are illegal, Jerusalem is our capital and the refugees will return,” he said in reference to the approximately 7.1 million Palestinian refugees and their descendants. “The Palestinian state will be established when no settlements exist within it,” Abbas said.

“They always say that Israel is a democratic state in the Middle East, (then) all of a sudden we started hearing that Israel is a Jewish state that has a democratic nature,” Abbas said. “I don’t understand how it could be a Jewish state with a democratic nature.”

The Palestinian Authority president stressed that the Palestinians will not sign any peace agreement that does not include the release of Palestinian prisoners and said that the prisoners are the pride of the Palestinian nation.

Earlier this week on Monday Hamas announced its decision to ban Fatah supporters from holding a rally in the Gaza Strip to mark the anniversary of Arafat’s death.

A Palestinian lawmaker says Hamas police have broken up a private screening of a film about Yasser Arafat on the sixth anniversary [thursday] of the iconic leader’s death. Ashraf Jumma says police threatened to seize a screen and a VCR on Thursday and arrested some of the more than two dozen attendees. Police also detained journalists, watched footage from the event and made them promise not to air it. Hamas has banned public commemoration of Arafat’s death since it seized control of Gaza in 2007 from forces loyal to Arafat’s successor, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. [a-sharg al-awsat, nov 11, 2010]

Major Ayman Al-Batneejy, a Hamas police spokesman, said permission was denied on “security” grounds. Hamas “cherishes the memory of the late president as a great national figure,” he said, but the movement is afraid that “collaborators will take advantage of the event causing problems for both governments.” [Ma’an news agency, nov 11, 2010]

Meanwhile, representatives of various Palestinian factions reiterated that they would follow Arafat’s steps towards establishing an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, freeing of the Israeli occupation and achieving a national Palestinian unity. Fatah movement asserted that it still sticks to the national Palestinian principles “which Arafat had struggled for” and will ” continue the struggle and resistance until the Palestinian aspirations of freedom and independence are achieved.” The movement said in a statement sent to reporters that “it insists on going ahead in the road towards achieving reconciliation among the Palestinians and reinforcing the national unity to confront the Israeli occupation,” stressing that it will keep struggling for the Palestinians’ freedom. The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) said that “if the Palestinians want to be loyal to Arafat, they should end their internal rifts and disputes and regain the Palestinian unity.”
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) called for learning from Arafat’s strategy of struggle to gain the national rights by resisting the occupation and ending the aggression and the siege. The Islamic Jihad (Holy War) movement also called on the Palestinians to consider the anniversary of Arafat’s death as “an opportunity to achieve unity and overcome all their differences,” urging a comprehensive national dialogue based on resistance. Speaker of the Palestinian National Council (PNC) Salim Za’noon said in a written statement sent to reporters that the Palestinian people “can only achieve their unity through continuing the dialogue between Fatah and Hamas to confront the Israeli conspiracies.” [Xinua News Agency, nov 11, 2010]

Obama, in an address to the U.N. General Assembly in September [crethiplethi, sept 23, 2010], said success could lead to an agreement that would allow a sovereign state of Palestine to join the United Nations next year. The remark was widely covered by Arab media. Abbas, talking about Obama’s remark, said: “I hope this is not just a slogan and when the time comes he says ‘We are sorry we could not (do it). Leave it for next year.’ “All the while you said this in the United Nations, this is a promise and a debt around your neck and it must be realized so that Palestine becomes a full member state of the United Nations,” he said. [Al-Arabiya, nov 11, 2010]