Palestinian factions celebrate unity deal

Various groups come together in Cairo to mark reconciliation agreement despite calls from Israel to scrap it. Last Modified: 04 May 2011 08:27

Representatives of Palestinian factions are set to gather in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, to mark a reconciliation agreement. Khaled Meshaal, the leader of the Hamas movement, and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and leader of Fatah, are expected to attend Wednesday's ceremony along with world leaders. Meshaal spoke in Cairo on Tuesday night, saying the reconciliation agreement is the beginning of "a new Arab era and a new Palestinian era, putting Israel in a corner". "It will say to all the world that there is now an Arab-Palestinian determination that needs to be respected," he said. The unity deal, which aims to end the feud between the ideologically divided factions in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, involves members of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), independent figures and Islamic Jihad, Popular Resistance Committee and Hamas. It will pave the way for presidential and legislative elections within a year. The deal has been denounced by Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, as "a hard blow to peace process". "How can we make peace with a government when half of it calls for the destruction of Israel and glorifies the murderous Osama bin Laden?" he said. "I call on Abu Mazen [Abbas] to completely cancel the agreement with Hamas and to choose the path to peace with Israel," Netanyahu said during a meeting with Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, in Jerusalem. Israel and the United States consider Hamas, which controls Gaza, a "terrorist organisation". 'Success not guaranteed' Netanyahu's call on Abbas to cancel the agreement was denounced as "unacceptable interference" by Azzam al-Ahmed, the head of Fatah's delegation. Ahmed said the factions will work on forming an interim government after Wednesday's official ceremony that will be attended by Nabil al-Arabi Muwafi, the Egyptian foreign minister, and Amr Moussa, the Arab League chief. Abbas said Israel does not wish to see the Palestinians united because it thrives on their divisions. "There are no guarantees for the success of the agreement, which has many enemies and there are attempts to undermine the agreement from several parties," Abbas told the Al-Ahram newspaper. Al Jazeera's Nicole Johnston reports from Gaza, where victims of the 2007 violence welcome the deal "Despite the fact that there are no guarantees to make this agreement successful there is a will and a way to agree," he said. "It is not required of Hamas to recognise Israel. We will form a government of technocrats and we will not ask Hamas to recognise Israel." Under the deal, three separate committees will be formed, to plan for the upcoming elections, reform the PLO, and to incorporate a security system between Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Palestinian officials say the new government's role will be to manage affairs in the Palestinian territories, while the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) will remain in charge of peace talks with Israel. Fatah and Hamas have been bitterly divided since June 2007 when Hamas took over the Gaza Strip, routing Fatah loyalists in bloody confrontations that effectively split the Palestinian territories into two separate entities with separate governments. Al Jazeera's Nicole Johnston, reporting from Gaza City, said many people in Gaza, remembering what happened in 2007, when about 100 people were killed in fighting, welcomed the unity deal. "When you speak to people who were victims during the 2007 fighting, they say they desperately want reconciliation", she said. "They want their children to no longer live under Israeli-Egyptian siege and they feel that reconciliation is the best way forward."

Source: Agencies