Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Abbas threatens to dissolve PA if Israel frees prisoners


From Khalid Amayreh in Ramallah

".....Ha’aretz termed Abbas’s warning as “a personal message,” adding that the PA leader stressed to Shamni that he “did not speak merely of resigning but of dismantling the PA.”

PA officials in Ramallah have refused to comment on the report.

According to reliable sources in Ramallah, Abbas believes freeing Palestinian lawmakers incarcerated in Israeli jails would reactivate the Hamas-dominated Palestinian Legislative Council which could then initiate a vote of no-confidence against the American-backed government of Salam Fayyadh......

The PA has been carrying out a crackdown, ostensibly in coordination with Israel, against Islamic and semi-Islamic civilian institutions throughout the West Bank.

The targets included schools, orphanages, charities, businesses, health and financial institutions as well as numerous NGOs.

Moreover, PA security agencies, financed and armed by the United States, have arrested hundreds of religiously-oriented figures suspected of sympathizing with Hamas. The detainees include college professors, students, religious leaders, and intellectuals.

PA-controlled media has generally ignored the Ha’aretz report which is liable to embarrass and discredit Abbas and his regime in the eyes of the Palestinian masses......

However, Israel is worried that meeting Hamas’s demands would bolster the status of the Islamic movement throughout the occupied territories, especially in the West Bank where the PA “government” is functioning under the Israeli military occupation......"

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