PLO: History of a revolution

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Fatah showed Palestinians democracy is more than just a slogan
By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent


A week after the Sixth Fatah Convention opened, its chairman Mahmoud Abbas could finally sit back, relax and smile. The rais is beginning to shine through as the undisputed winner. Not only did he manage to convene the conference, an achievement that eluded his legendary predecessor Yasser Arafat, the huge event went through almost without incident (barring a brief shootout between the Presidential Guard and their general intelligence colleagues, in a fight over a parking spot). Abbas was unanimously elected to chair the movement, and the new leadership can boast some more popular, slightly younger faces. Even if the "youngsters" are already past 50, they represent a cohort believed to be less corrupt and of impeccable patriotic record. Many were jailed in Israel (Jibril Rajoub, Marwan Barghouti, Mohammad Dahlan, Hussein al-Sheikh) or were Fatah members in Lebanon (Mahmoud al-Aloul, Muhammad al-Madani, and others).

And there was another winner at the conference: Fatah itself. The organization showed the Palestinian street that democracy was more than just a slogan. Last Wednesday, Hussam Hader, a Tanzim activist from the Balata refugee camp, stood up at the conference hall and told Abbas that at this conference he was just as good as any other Fatah member, and therefore must let his critics speak. Such conduct would not have been tolerated in Arafat's time. This incident, which provoked much interest in the Arab media, amply demonstrates the magnitude of change within Fatah and the freedom of speech granted to its members. It's true that Hader was not elected to the Central Committee, while Abbas' allies Mohammad Ghneim, Mahmoud al-Aloul and Salim Za'noun took top places. But favorite lists and pressure from the top are hardly confined to Likud or Labor. At the end of the day, the vote wasn't rigged, and it took place in front of TV cameras. While Hamas elects its leadership under a shroud of secrecy, far from the Palestinian public's eye and through unclear processes, Fatah showed it can conduct itself in a new and different manner.

Only Tuesday did Hamas' Mahmoud al-Zahar declare that until Fatah and Hamas have reconciled, no general elections could be held in the West Bank and Gaza. Al-Zahar and his organization have every reason to issue such statements and to try and maintain the split between Gaza and the West Bank. Hamas' decline in Palestinian public opinion, and Fatah's surprising unity at the conference's conclusion, reduce Hamas' chance of winning the next general elections. Ironically, a prisoner exchange deal for captive soldier Gilad Shalit could boost Hamas in the eyes of the Palestinian street.

Fatah's 18 elected delegates include an intriguing mix of veteran leaders (Sultan Abu Aynayn, Nabil Sha'ath, Salim Za'noun and Abbas Zaki), and the popular leaders who led the masses to negotiations with Israel, as well as to two intifadas (Dahlan, Rajoub, Tawfiq Tirawi, al-Sheikh and Barghouti), not to mention some other personalities, like economist Mohammed Shtayeh or diplomat Nasser al-Kidwa (Arafat's nephew), and, of course, negotiator Saeb Erekat. This is not the kind of leadership likely to take more radical positions toward Israel. Most of its members have negotiated with Israel at one time or another. It might, however, pressure Abbas not to renew negotiations until construction in all settlements, including East Jerusalem, ceases. Most of the delegates also advocate a tough stance toward Hamas, except Rajoub, who calls for for reconciliation.

Several new delegates speaking Tuesday pointed out the first task that lies before them is rebuilding Palestinian faith in Fatah. The new leadership will proceed carefully to see whether it faces the same corruption accusations as its predecessor. If it avoids such pitfalls, Fatah is very likely to gain support in Gaza and the West Bank.

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Palestinian PM to Haaretz: It's not our business whether Israel is Jewish

By Akiva Eldar, Haaretz Correspondent


Israel's character is it's own business. It is not up to the Palestinians to define it, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Thursday, when asked about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's demand the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

"Israel's character is Israel's business and nobody else's," Fayyad says in an interview with Haaretz.

"The character of Israel, as the total character that Israel would like to have, is Israel's own choice. It characterizes itself in the way that it wishes to characterize itself. Why raise it now? Why would you want to settle it now when we haven't settled anything else? Needless to say, however which way Israel decides to characterize itself as a product of the political system of Israel, is [up to] Israel. This condition wasn't mentioned in the Oslo Accords, and I see no room to set new conditions or preconditions for the negotiations. Until today all we received in exchange for recognizing the two-state solution and stopping the armed struggle was your recognition of the Palestine Liberation Organization as the Palestinian people's representative," he says.

Fayyad seems to prefer to talk about economic issues rather than politics. His critics say he gives tail wind to the "economic peace" touted by his Israeli counterpart, Netanyahu.

Fayyad is aware of these jabs and says his purpose is to prove to the world that the Palestinians can run a state no worse than anyone else. He is convinced that proper government and a growing economy are the best way to establish an independent Palestinian state. Fayyad says he has managed to gain the donor states' - first and foremost the United States and the European Union - confidence, and that Saudi Arabia is about to grant the PA $200 million.

"Establishing a proper government is a goal in itself, but also a means to end the occupation," Fayyad says.

Fayyad notes that the Palestinian economy's growth has exceeded all expectations, but expresses regret it has taken Israel so long to remove dozens of roadblocks, which have stymied the PA's economic development for many years. He cannot understand why Israel bothers with petty details such as this roadblock or another, while it has admitted they were not necessary.

It is also time the Israel Defense Forces stopped its frequent incursions into Palestinian cities every Monday and Thursday, he says. This sabotages the PA's efforts to enforce law and order and blatantly contradicts Israel's commitment to adhere to the road map, he says.

Fayyad sees no sense in maintaining the blockade of the Gaza Strip, either. Everyone admits that the status quo doesn't work, so why is Israel perpetuating this policy, he asks.

Asked whether he could say with full confidence that PA security branches are reliable, Fayyad says candidly that at first he saw the desire to provide the Palestinians with security forces as an impossible mission.

Although he was aware that he would be accused of being a subcontractor for the Israeli security forces, Fayyad says he decided that it was imperative to open a new era and persuade his people that building up a security force was first of all for their own safety and their children's.

"I realized that security was the glue between a thriving economy and proper government and achieving liberty for the Palestinian people," he says.

The expansion of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank undermined the Palestinians' confidence in the peace process, Fayyad says.

"They see that 16 years after the Oslo agreement and six years after the road map, the settlements are still growing and Israel is ignoring its commitments. I believe in a two-state solution and stopping the settlements is the key to achieving that goal," he says.

Q: Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the Fatah conference resolutions cast grave doubts over the possibility of reaching a final-status agreement. Defense Minister Ehud Barak also expressed disappointment with them.

"Your partner to the final-status agreement is the PLO," says Fayyad.

Israel entered negotiations with the PLO and received its commitment to stop the violence, he says. "There is no other partner."

The Fatah conference was a demonstration of power and bolstering the ranks of the PLO's most important organization, he says. "After many years of difficulties, Fatah managed to gather in Palestine representatives from all over the world. I'm not a member but I sat at the opening session and was moved," he says.

Fayyad commended Israel for allowing the Fatah delegates to come to Bethlehem and denounced Hamas for prohibiting the Gaza delegates from attending an event of primary national importance.

Fayyad says the peace talks should resume from the point where they were cut off during Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni's government. There's no sense in starting everything from the beginning, he said. "I too object to putting off the talks on Jerusalem and the refugees to the distant future. The conflict must be ended, and do to so we must find a solution to all the core issues," he says.

Ultimately, the international community and the United Nations' intervention will be necessary to achieve peace, Fayyad says. "We rely on international law and the international consensus that the territories are occupied land. I believe President Obama will present his peace plan soon. This is an opportunity we must not miss."

Regarding kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, Fayyad says "I fully appreciate the pain and the agony, for sure. Particularly on the part of the parents and relatives." Adding that he is also sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinian prisoners' parents, with whom he speaks every day. "A mother's pain is a common language of all mothers. The principle of the deal is clear to both sides, and it's time to end this affair. Releasing prisoners is not something to be postponed to the final agreement and must be dealt with today," he says.

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Following election triumph, Fatah sets out to 'liberate' Gaza
By Avi Issacharoff, a Haaretz reporter

BETHLEHEM - At the start of the week, a member of *Iz al-Din al-Qassam, the military wing of Hamas, died in the Palestinian Authority's Juneid Prison, in Nablus. The circumstances of Fadi Hamadneh's death are unclear, with PA officials claiming he committed suicide, and Hamas claiming he was tortured to death by PA security operatives. In response to the charges, the spokesman of the Palestinian security services, Adnan Damiri, said that Hamas, which has executed hundreds of people in the Gaza Strip, has no right to talk about torture or the violation of human rights.

Hamas tried to stir up a major media response to Hamadneh's death but the organization could not steal the thunder from the Fatah convention in Bethlehem. The Islamic organization that rules in Gaza cannot draw encouragement from the developments surrounding the Fatah gathering. It failed in its attempt to keep Fatah delegates in the Strip from voting, and Fatah's status on the Palestinian street is only expected to rise.

The secular-nationalist Fatah movement pulled off a 2,260-delegate convention, including elections that changed its leadership, with only limited hiccups. The newly elected members of the Fatah Central Committee - who include Mohammed Dahlan, Hussein al-Sheikh, Tawfik Tirawi, Saeb Erekat and Nabil Sha'ath - share a firm approach toward Hamas. Perhaps the only one of their number who has repeatedly called for rapprochement with Hamas is Jibril Rajoub, whose brother Naif Rajoub is a leading member of Hamas detained in Israel.

The gulf between the two organizations is only widening. One candidate for the Fatah Revolutionary Council, Ziad Abu Ayin, did not hesitate to voice threats against Hamas. "We will not negotiate endlessly with Hamas," he told Haaretz on Tuesday. "Hamas has turned 1.5 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip into hostages. The Fatah leadership must decide how to free these hostages, whether through negotiations or combat. Yes, combat. But everyone must accept this decision, they cannot be allowed to continue to control the lives of the Gazans. Hamas defeated Fatah in the elections because of the chaos within Fatah. But now, after Fatah has unified its ranks, it's a new Fatah. The old Fatah is gone and Hamas is about to be defeated," Abu Ayin said.

On voting day, the plaza of Terra Sancta College was filled with campaign materials of Central Committee and Revolutionary Council candidates, and activists whispered into delegates' ears, "My brother, vote for ..." Slates of recommended candidates were displayed. More than 100 people competed for 18 seats on the Central Committee, while some 600 campaigned for 80 Revolutionary Council places.

A flyer for Rawhi Fattouh read: "Vote for Central Committee candidate Rawhi Ahmed Fattouh, former PA chairman and former chairman of the Palestinian Legislative Council." Fattouh was de jure PA chairman for two months, between the death of Yasser Arafat and the election of Mahmoud Abbas, but is better known as the senior Fatah official in whose car 600 stolen cell phones were found when he was crossing the Allenby Bridge. He was acquitted by the court, but not by the Fatah delegates. Fattouh remained outside the Central Committee.

Outside the college, supporters of Marwan Barghouti, a Fatah leader serving several life terms in an Israeli prison for masterminding terror attacks against Israeli civilians, distributed T-shirts featuring the black-and-white image of their candidate, his handcuffed wrists raised, and the words "Hadarim Prison, cell 28." The label inside the shirt featuring the image of the leader of the Tanzim bears the name of an Israeli company from Petah Tikva, unaware that shirts it had manufactured ended up in Ramallah. Barghouti, the famous warrior against the Israeli occupation reached only third place, although many analysts had expected him to come in first. This time he can't complain that the "Israeli occupation" damaged his election campaign.

Link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezzedeen-al-qassam
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanzim

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An Israeli view on the Palestinian territories and authorithy:




Palestinian state is not synonym for terrorist entity
By Akiva Eldar (Haaretz)

The soldier at the Qalandiyah checkpoint gave a bored look at the car with the Israeli license plates. No one asked for documents or passes. Ten minutes later we were in the heart of Ramallah, the capital of the Palestinian Authority. The security forces obviously know there is no cause for concern. Nowadays Tel Aviv's beaches are more dangerous than the West Bank's cities. According to statistics from the Prime Minister's Office, more Israelis have been murdered in the past month in Israel than those murdered since January 2007 in the territory of the PA. The Jewish army's work in the territories we still call "Judea and Samaria" is done by non-Jews: Arab police, American instructors, European money. How has Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman put it? Paradise.

Over the years, suicide bombings spearheaded the political and media struggle against the Oslo process ("don't give them guns"). Although the number of terror attacks has declined despite the increase in the number of settlers (from 110,000 when the Oslo Accords were signed in September 1993 to 300,000 today, not including East Jerusalem) - terrorism continues to horrify us. Although at the height of the campaigns against Palestinians in Gaza, Ramallah was the quietest place in the region, the Qassams from Gaza were shown as "proof" of what would happen to us if we withdrew from the West Bank. For some reason the continued calm on Israel's eastern border and the order Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's government has imposed in cities the Israel Defense Forces has been good enough to evacuate have been unable to prove that the Palestinian state is not necessarily a synonym for a terrorist entity.

Nine years after the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa intifada and almost five years after Yasser Arafat's death, a solid Palestinian leadership is waiting for Israel. It's a leadership that speaks out and acts decisively against violence. The sixth Fatah convention approved a diplomatic solution based on two states within the 1967 borders. Although a mountainous 16 years of diplomatic process have produced a molehill, the option of returning to the armed struggle against the occupier has been pushed to the margins. The Palestinian leadership, as well as the countries of the Arab League, are showing understanding for Israel's concerns; our Palestinian neighbor will be immeasurably less armed and dangerous than our northern neighbors. We can only hope that its security forces will not abuse their new recruits and that their officers will not be liars.

The proceedings at the Fatah convention show that the Palestinian state will have more democratic checks and balances than any of the Arab countries. Even if it turns out that there is substance to Ahmed Qureia's claims of irregularities in the election of the organization's leaders, let him ask Ami Ayalon what happened to him in the Labor Party primary. Eli Yishai can tell Qureia about Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's strict democratic system for drawing up Shas' Knesset list. Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman will fill in the gaps in the doctrine of party politics in the Middle East's only democracy.

Speaking of Lieberman, we have hardly heard the claim lately that a Palestinian state will fall victim to corruption at the top. People who live in houses where a finance minister and welfare minister are sent to prison and investigations or indictments are pending against a former president, prime minister, foreign minister and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman should not throw stones. The arrangements instituted by Fayyad and his economic initiatives prove baseless the concern that anarchy will prevail in a poor Palestinian state as in Somalia. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself proudly noted the growth of the Palestinian economy. The International Monetary Fund is convinced that if Israel is more generous about removing roadblocks, Palestinian growth will exceed 8 percent.

Thus the excuses are running out one after another and the naked truth is being revealed: Netanyahu's promise - "if they give they'll get, if they don't give they won't get" - was based on the assumption that we would continue to be on the receiving end of Palestinian terror, which would release us from the need to allow them to establish an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital. If even U.S. President Barack Obama does not ensure that they get what they deserve, we will all get what we deserve.

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Abbas: Talks, not terror, is way to Palestinian state

By Reuters


Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday negotiation was the only path to statehood, espousing non-violence after his Fatah party backed an option of "resistance" against Israeli occupation.

"We are peace seekers," the Western-backed leader said at a cabinet meeting in Ramallah of the Palestinian Authority.

"The main and the only path is the path of peace and negotiations. We don't have any other path and we do not wish to use any other path."

It was the cabinet's first meeting since the dominant Fatah movement which Abbas heads held a congress this month, at which he reasserted the Palestinian option of "resistance" against Israel's occupation of the West Bank.

He did not define resistance but gave examples of civil disobedience. He said terrorism was counter-productive.

But the language, adopted in a policy document, drew criticism from Israel, which pursued peace negotiations with Abbas until talks stalled nearly a year ago and which expects him to resume talks in the near future.

Analysts said Abbas was engaged in a political balancing act with the West, Israel and factions of his own movement.

"Abbas was seeking to reduce American and Israeli anger after the congress," said political analyst Hani Masri.

"He wants to reiterate that nothing has changed after the congress. He is adopting the same path."

Analyst Basem Zubeidi of Bir Zeit university said Abbas spoke about resistance at the congress in order to satisfy all factions, and in order to regain legitimacy.

"Abbas wants to assure everyone and I think he has succeeded in doing that and he has succeeded in showing that his way is the way of negotiations."

Fatah's congress in Bethlehem was its first in 20 years and first without the late Yasser Arafat to dominate proceedings. Palestinian commentators said Abbas was strengthened by the election to its executive body of men from a younger generation.

But Abbas may face problems in Fatah's Central Committee in the future if he is seen to dismiss the option of "resistance" out of hand, the analysts said.

Some Arab commentators have criticised the Fatah congress for blunting the Palestinian independence movement.

"Without exaggeration it is possible to say that one of the first results of the Fatah conference was political confusion," wrote Al-Jazeera television's commentator Mo'men Basisoand.

He said Fatah "has become completely hostage to the international political position, which complements the Israeli position. This is another way of explaining Abbas' insistence on following the negotiation line."

Peace talks with Israel stalled last November and have been suspended since March when the right-leaning government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office.

In his statement on Monday, Abbas said Israel must stop West Bank settlement activity in all its forms, and if it does so, peace talks will resume.

Netanyahu has resisted a settlement freeze, as dictated by a U.S.-backed 2003 peace "road map".

"We want to start from the point where the negotiations left off," said Abbas, indicating there would be no retreat from positions already negotiated with the former Israeli government of Ehud Olmert.

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And here an exellent article from New York Times reporter Isabel Kershner:

MEMO FROM BETHLEHEM
Fatah Turns to Nation Building, Though It Doesn’t Discard the Rifle

By Isabel Kershner
Published: August 10, 2009

BETHLEHEM, West Bank — Hoping to satisfy as wide a constituency as possible, the Palestinian delegates to the Fatah conference, scheduled to conclude here on Tuesday, have tried to broadcast a message both peaceful and militant.

It was a delicate balancing act for Fatah, the mainstream Palestinian nationalist party, as it sought to rise above past failures, rejuvenate itself and head off the challenge from Hamas, the Islamic group that is Fatah’s rival.

But it remains an open question whether the weeklong conference, Fatah’s first in 20 years, has hastened or slowed the prospect of a Palestinian state.

One player Fatah did not satisfy was the Israeli government. To listen to Israeli officials, the conference has been an almost unmitigated disaster.

Not surprisingly, Israel’s hawkish foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, took the hardest line, telling a delegation of Democratic lawmakers from the United States on Monday that the “radical and uncompromising positions” emerging from the Fatah conference created an “unbridgeable gap between them and us” and “effectively buried any possibility of reaching a comprehensive agreement with the Palestinians in the coming years.”

But even Ehud Barak, Israel’s defense minister and the leader of the center-left Labor Party, declared the language and some of the harder positions that emerged in snippets as “grave and unacceptable to us.”

The Palestinian delegates, ensconced in their own internal debates, were unfazed by the Israeli reaction.

“What did they expect from Fatah?” said Qaddoura Fares, a prominent delegate from Ramallah. “Settlements continue and they refuse to recognize our national rights.”

Riad Jubran, a delegate from Jerusalem, said the Israelis would have criticized the gathering “even if we had come here to play football.”

The political program adopted by the Fatah conference has yet to be published, pending amendments and approval by the newly elected leadership council, but its main thrust was clear. Those familiar with it said it endorsed negotiations for a two-state solution while calling for a new approach and new terms for talks, including a full cessation of Israeli settlement building, a defined end result and a limited time frame.

“It speaks about a peaceful solution,” said Sarhan Salaymeh, the mayor of the West Bank town of Al-Ram, who spent 13 years in an Israeli prison. “It is the time for nation building, not fighting,” he said. “The rifle has its own time.”

Yet Fatah, still defining itself as a national liberation movement, is reluctant to fully abandon the gun. In a statement outlining the principles of its new political charter, the party reaffirmed its commitment to achieve a just peace, but said it believed the Palestinians, as a people under occupation, retain the legitimate right of resistance “in all its forms.”

Fatah’s “constants,” the statement added, were the liberation of the land and Jerusalem, the removal of settlements, and the demand of the Palestinian refugees of 1948 and their descendants for the right of return. The statement did not specify what land or parts of Jerusalem were to be liberated, but delegates said it was clear the statement meant the areas captured by Israel in the 1967 war. Several said the political program offered nothing really new.

In addition to their annoyance over the talk about a right of resistance, the Israelis were incensed by a conference resolution holding Israel responsible for the death in 2004 of Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader who founded Fatah.

Nasser al-Kidwa, a Fatah leader and nephew of Mr. Arafat who has led a Palestinian inquiry into Mr. Arafat’s death, said in an interview that there were indications of a “high possibility of poisoning,” though still no proof.

Some explained the militant overtones at the conference as natural, reflecting respect for Fatah’s revolutionary past. Others pointed to the harder line of the Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a conservative who only recently, and grudgingly, endorsed the notion of a limited Palestinian state.

“We are not Netanyahu’s friends,” said Tawfiq Abu Khoussa, a Fatah activist who fled Gaza in 2007 after it was taken over by Hamas. “Until we get our legitimate rights we are enemies.”

Despite tough talk by Fatah reformists before the conference and stormy sessions during it, there seemed to be little introspection about the infighting and mistakes that cost the party its popularity, to the point where it lost Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006 to Hamas.

As elections for Fatah’s governing bodies finally got under way on Sunday evening, the party seemed united, at least temporarily. Old party veterans had entered into alliances with young reformist candidates, hoping to combine experience with new blood. Hundreds of delegates who were trapped in Gaza, prevented from leaving by Hamas, were casting their votes by phone.

Many of the roughly 2,300 delegates at the conference packed into the yard of the Terra Sancta School where the conference was taking place, lobbying for candidates and socializing. Some delegates, born into refugee families in countries like Lebanon and Syria, were in the West Bank for the first time. By early Tuesday, initial results indicated that most of the 18 elected positions on the Central Committee, Fatah’s highest governing body, had gone to the younger generation, with only a few of the old guard retaining their seats.

Meanwhile, it was as if Christmas had come early to Bethlehem, adding to the momentary feeling of cheer. The influx of Fatah members filled every hotel room, while scraps of white paper — lists of recommended candidates and other election paraphernalia — were whipped up like snowflakes in the occasional breeze.

And, in the end, nobody here could say even when the next Fatah conference might come about, let alone an agreement for a Palestinian state.

www.nytimes.com/2009/08/11/world/middleeast/11fatah.html

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Palestinian PM plans for statehood


Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister, has unveiled a plan for building the institutions and infrastructure of an independent state.

The ambitious 65-page document calls for a new international airport in the Jordan Valley and rail links to neighbouring states, as well as changes to the economy that would free it from its reliance on Israel.

"The Palestinian government is struggling determinedly against a hostile occupation regime ... in order to establish a de facto state apparatus within the next two years," Fayyad announced in the West Bank on Tuesday.

"We must confront the whole world with the reality that Palestinians are united and steadfast in their determination to remain on their homeland, end the occupation and achieve their freedom and independence."

The objectives set out in the plan are aimed to be implemented over the next two years and would effectively create a de facto functioning Palestinian state, with or without the co-operation of Israel.

'Pro-active'

Al Jazeera's Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah, said: "What he is trying to do, according to his close aides, is first of all show that the Palestinians are pro-active ... that they are working to be ready for sovereignty."

"And at the same time send a very clear message to all those that have said that the Palestinians have done enough to prepare themselves to govern, to fulfil their security obligations and so on."

The Palestinians want an independent state on all the territories occupied by Israel during the 1967 Middle East war, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

But Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, who is currently visiting the UK, has refused to commit to beginning negotiations on a two-state solution.

Talks between the two sides have been stalled since Israel launched a 22-day offensive in the Gaza Strip last December, which killed at least 1,400 Palestinians.

Nir Hefetz, Netanyahu's spokesman, said on Monday that a "political process" is "due to begin in about two months' time".

However, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has said any resumption of talks must be accompanied by a pledge to halt settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.

The US has been pushing for a freeze on settlement activity, but so far Netanyahu has refused to commit and officials said that there was "no breakthrough" expected when the Israeli prime minister met Gordon Brown, his British counterpart, on Tuesday.

Foreign investment

The Palestinian plan speaks of building infrastructure, securing energy sources and water, as well as improving housing, education, and agriculture.

Statement of a Palestinian:

"Without addressing the issue of border closures and internal closures we cannot talk about a relief of Palestinian living conditions or changing the Palestinian economy"

Naser Abdel Karim,
economist

It also states that the size of the government should be trimmed and the legal system, which is crrently a mix of British, Jordanian, Israeli and Ottoman laws, be unified.

The document contains few details of how the objectives will be achieved, but it does suggest that tax breaks will be offered for the foreign investment that would be desperately needed to get the plan off the ground.

"The government will work on encouraging investment in Palestine through offering tax cuts to local and foreign investors [and] will review investment regulations and remove obstacles that hinder investment," the Reuters news agency quoted the document as saying.

"Our national duty stipulates that we should do whatever we can to get our economy out of the cycle of dependency and alienation."

'No public trust'

Gazi Hamad, a senior Hamas official, told Al Jazeera that talk of Palestinian statehood should not come before other issues.

"We need national consensus and national meetings of all Palestinian factions in order to put a new political strategy, a new political vision, in order to understand how to manage, how to run the conflict with the occupation."

"But if they just talk about peace, about negation ... people don't trust it."

Concerning the role of the Obama administration, he said: "Till now we have not seen any practical steps ... [Israel] are still building settlements ... We need a decision from the American administration that they tell Israel a very clear message that you have to stop building settlements, you have to declare that the occupation must be over, you have to recognise the Palestinian nation. This is what we need."

"But all the time they tell the Palestinian ‘We support you, we support the two state solution, we support building a Palestinian state. But on the ground nothing."

"We have spent more than 20 years hearing the same language, the same voices, the same words."

Naser Abdel Karim, an economist at Ramallah's Bir Zeit University, told Al Jazeera that the document was "very ambitious", but would ultimately struggle to improve the situation while Israeli restrictions remained on the Palestinian territories.

"Without addressing the issue of border closures and internal closures we cannot talk about a relief of Palestinian living conditions or changing the Palestinian economy," he said.

"The framework of Mr Fayyad has laid out exactly the right way. We need to end the occupation, but first we need to build a state, then end the occupation, then the Palestinian economy can prosper."

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Saeb Erekat answers Haaretz.com readers' questions

Veteran Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat spent an hour Tuesday answering questions posed by Haaretz.com readers. Thank you to the thousands of people who contributed to this live event.

Saeb Erekat has been a fixture in Mideast peacemaking since the Madrid Conference, through the signing of the Oslo Accords on the White House lawn, to the Camp David and Taba negotiations.

He has headed the Palestinian delegations at most negotiations with Israel since 1991, and was viewed as staunch loyalist of Yasser Arafat until the latter's death in 2004. He is now a key adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and accompanied him on his recent trip to Washington to meet with President Barack Obama.

Erekat was born in Jerusalem in 1955. He gained his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from San Francisco University, and holds a PhD from Bradford University in Britain.

He also spent more than a decade on the editorial board of Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds, and lectured at An-Najan University in the West Bank city of Nablus.


What is the Palestinian view on large existing settlements in the West Bank (for example Ariel and Ma'ale Adumim)? Israelis aim to let them stay and give some territory in exchange. We never hear the Palestinian position in that. Is this acceptable and in what national consensus? Thanks.
Asked by Ivana Zuntova, from Prague, Czech Republic

Saeb Erekat: Settlements and peace don't go together. To us as Palestinians, when we advocate the two state solution and recognition of Israel, we say Israel exists on 78 percent and Palestinian on 22 percent. To see the Israelis coming to this 22 percent and trying to create facts on the ground and tell you later it's reality. They negotiate with themselves - Netanyahu, Ya'alon, Yishai - and and then they tell me: "Come here boy, we know what's best for you, that's what you should accept." This is dictation, this is not negotiations. You want me to go to the Palestinians and say this is a good agreement? Negotiation is about giving and taking, but those Israelis who want to advocate the settlements, they are making peace with themselves and not with me.

By the way, I am a fact on the ground, I don't intend to disappear. Many people thought I would disappear. Wake up. I am here and here to stay. My generation is extending its arms to you, saying let's be good neighbors. You are eating up the same territory that I am supposed to build my state on.

What pressure is the PA applying on Israel and/or the world to force Israel to stop holding American-Palestinians at Ben-Gurion Airport when they are trying to visit the West Bank?
Asked by Mohammed Awadallah, from Al Bireh, Palestine

Saeb Erekat: This is shameful and this should stop. I don?t have any pressure on anyone, I cannot pressure Israel. If I violate the agreement, Jericho is closed, Gaza is closed - you have teeth. If you violate the agreement what do I do? Write to [Obama's Mideast envoy George] Mitchell? Haaretz?

Wake up! This is shameful, this should stop? Each time someone wants to go to a conference in Rome, the U.S. I have to apply. The Israelis should take notice of this, and stop it.

Dr. Erekat, after 18 years of negotiating with Israel, do you think that anything can be achieved under Obama's administration?
Asked by Jerusalemite, from Jerusalem, Palestine

Saeb Erekat: I did not wake up one morning as a Palestinian and feel my conscience aching for Israeli or Jewish suffering that I sat with them at the negotiating table, and neither did they. They did not wake up one morning and feel their conscience aching for Palestinian suffering.

I don't think we wasted one minute negotiating. I know that Palestinians and Israelis a lot of time don't have eyes that see what has been achieved. We have come a long way in these 18 years. The situation here - we are not running a conflict between Iraq and Iran... this is a different type of conflict. I am a product of conflict resolution, it's about things that make Palestinians and Israelis believe.

If you read Judaism, Islam and Christianity very carefully, you will find that the three religions advocate peace, saving lives, healing, forgiveness ... Why is it that the most vicious calls to conflict come from mosques and synagogues? Which shows how much religion is being used in our conflict. The minute you start going to synagogues and mosques to use God, you have bloodshed.

I recall in 1979 when I took Israeli students from Tel Aviv University to An Naja University in Nablus, my classes were boycotted [by Palestinians]. The thing that most Israelis don't want to know is what you go through for your principles. I remember the isolation...

Obama will make not peace for us, it is Palestinians and Israelis that will have to make the decisions. Americans will help, but Palestinians should not make a mistake. If peace is to be made, no one will impose a decision upon us.

The bigger picture in the region is how we go - do we go in the vehicles of [Osama] bin Laden or the vehicles of democracy?

Peace is doable. Palestinians and Israelis should not despair, we have not wasted one minute in the last 18 years. There have been a lot of changes in the way we look to each other. Eight years ago, we saw Israelis as soldiers and Israelis saw us as suicide bombers.

Obama told us he wants a Palestinian state because this serves American interests...

I want the Israelis to stop exporting fear to their people. Leaders who make fear export as their basis are doomed to have their people live in fear and by fear. You have a hand extended to you, [Palestinian President Mahmoud] Abbas is ready to restart negotiations. Obama is pursuing his interests.

Two things will determine the future: Peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and democracy in the Arab world. Anyone who says Arabs are not ready for democracy is a racist.

With Hamas in Gaza, can a peace agreement be reached between Israel and the Palestinian Authority?
Asked by Sharon Cohen, of New York, U.S.A. (A similar question was asked by Steve A. from Manchester, U.K.)

Saeb Erekat: Hamas said because we won the elections, the UN must cancel all their obligations... And that's why Hamas failed and democracy won.

That's what we are challenging Hamas with - we want to go to the ballot, not the bullet. And that's why we need an end game with Israel. If I have an end game agreement showing the two-state solution, Hamas will disappear, if I don't, I will disappear. That's the fight. It's about me saying it's doable, through peace.

Time is of the essence... The shortest time possible means how many Palestinian and Israeli lives you will save and that's not wishful thinking. The sooner you identify the end game, the sooner you begin the process of changes. Agreements will be signed but you will not make peace, what will make peace is the day after. We are two societies that can be easily hit by fear export.

Will you ever recognize Israel as a Jewish state? Thank you
Asked by Jon P, from Buffalo, U.S.A.

Saeb Erekat: That's so amazing of Israel. The birth certificate of Israel as embodied in the UN is called the State of Israel so I'm asked to recognize the State of Israel. I'm a Palestinian, Muslim, Christian, I don't think about converting to Judaism or joining the Zionist organization.

I'm not going to call the shots for you. I'm not going to stop you from circumcising your boys, I'm not going to stop you from going to synagogues. You can call yourself whatever you want.

If you want to call yourself the biblical, united, eternal, holy, milk and honey land of Jewish Israel, submit your name to the UN. Your name is the State of Israel. It's unbelievable to ask Palestinians.

Fatah has been criticized for being corrupt and therefore partially to blame for the success of Hamas. Has the organization changed in light of these claims?
Asked by Danny Sher, from Jerusalem, Israel

Saeb Erekat: Last week we had the sixth conference of Fatah, for the first time in 20 years. We have 2,325 delegates from 152 countries and territories worldwide. I've heard them speaking in Latin, [with] American accents, British accents, in German, in English. Fatah is not a party that has a leader that sits in the mountains somewhere and writes...

There were 2,325 brains sitting in this conference, did we shout at this conference? Yes. Was I shouted at? Yes. Was I criticized? Like hell... But I stood up and I said to them what I told you about peace. We have to pursue the peace process, the two-state solution and understand the changes around us. I told them that leaders usually tell people what you like to hear, I'll tell you what you need to hear, and I did.

There was the Bethlehem declaration reiterating the two-state solution, the road map, appreciating Obama's efforts, and politically speaking, Fatah mandated us to pursue the two-state solution. I'm not saying Fatah is perfect, there are those who try to use their posts and ranks to benefit.

One of the most important decisions is we have a party court where people can make claims against people and I want Palestinians to maintain that people are innocent until proven guilty. And I think that the establishment of this court will deal with these issues and I hope the next Fatah conference will see a party fully reformed, fully empowered, fully restoring the credibility in the minds of Palestinians.

[pieter]

PLO: History of a Revolution - Episode 1 - 13 Jul 09

[RabiaMuweis]

Peter
I may be off topic
but when I was watching youtube and in which Yasser Arafat. I think that the mistakes that we've been and still are located where we are usurped homeland personality of one man. When the assumption of the power stay in power until he dies and then lose the compass and the nation mired in loss. And the reason he did not allow for others in leadership takes which reduces the chances of finding people who might have a specification stand them follow the path of national progress. The Israelis in spite of everything dealing in the leadership of their country between them that allows it to be more stable when the mandate of one of them comes another to receive the flag, and may disagree, but they differed on some pumps new blood in their policy. and not as we do in our Arab countries, when the president will come remains to be aging.

[pieter]

Oct 23, 2009 3:31:18 GMT -7 RabiaMuweis said:

Peter
I may be off topic
but when I was watching youtube and in which Yasser Arafat. I think that the mistakes that we've been and still are located where we are usurped homeland personality of one man. When the assumption of the power stay in power until he dies and then lose the compass and the nation mired in loss. And the reason he did not allow for others in leadership takes which reduces the chances of finding people who might have a specification stand them follow the path of national progress. The Israelis in spite of everything dealing in the leadership of their country between them that allows it to be more stable when the mandate of one of them comes another to receive the flag, and may disagree, but they differed on some pumps new blood in their policy. and not as we do in our Arab countries, when the president will come remains to be aging.

Rabia,

Interesting comment Rabia, I agree with you in the case of the Palestinians and many Arab states. I have never been to an Arab or Muslim country nor to Israel so I can not judge from personal experiance, but I have had and have Egytpian, Iraqi
Kurd, Iranian, Black African Muslim and Turkish friends who were both Patriotic and fond of their people and country, and critical towards their leaders and their own people. You are right that the old leaders stay in the way of new younger leaders who could lead reforms, make progress in their countries and be more flexible, dynamic and strategic thinkers in the best interest of their people.

Arafat could have been replaced by Marwan Bin Khatib Barghouti ( مروان البرغوثي born June 6, 1959) the leader of the First and Second Intifadas ten years ago or earlier. But ofcourse behind the scenes there is political, diplomatic, economical and financial pressure of large nations, secret services, organisations (like the Arab Leage and Arab countries like Egypt, Saoudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria who I am sure are present in the Palestinians territories with spies, informers, and Palestinians who work for those governments - next to the Palestinians who work for Israel -).

Intersting old interview Kadura Fares: with www.cfr.org/publication/9696/

[pieter]

Interesting documentry about the West-Bank

[pieter]

The old Palestinian gentleman talked about the influence of
the Fundamentalist Shas party:

[pieter]

Kamal Nawash: Palestinian Refugee

[pieter]

Recent Palestinian history (the failure of the Palestinian Authority
in the Gaza strip)