PLO to discuss Hamas cabinet list
22/3/2006 15:35
Despite opposition from Israel, Hamas is facing another challenge from
Palestinian factions on its way to form a new cabinet, a senior member of the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) told Xinhua yesterday.
Qais
Abdulkareem, a member in the PLO executive committee said that after Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas received a final list of Hamas-led cabinet on Sunday,
the PLO executive committee will hold a meeting on Wednesday to discuss
it.
"The list is not important, the more important is about the program for
this government," said Abdulkareem.
"We will discuss the program and after
that, Abbas, as the head of the committee, will declare the last position
according to what we agree," said the PLO member.
As Hamas is about to form a
new cabinet within weeks, the PLO feels very nervous because Hamas does not
recognize its program while the organization is the only side that represents
the Palestinians in the world.
For that reason, The Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) has declared that it would not join a Hamas-led
cabinet.
Another PLO executive member and former senior government minister
Yasser Abed Raboo said that it was a very dangerous step to form a Hamas-led
government.
"We will discuss on Wednesday how Hamas comes to the authority by
PLO laws although Hamas wants to ignore the PLO," said Abed Raboo.
He said
that 120 states in the UN recognize PLO as the representative for the
Palestinian people, "and I can't understand why Palestinian Prime
Minister-designate Ismail Haneya ignore it."
The fact is that Hamas
recognizes PLO not in a direct way.
Hamas spokesman in Gaza Salah Bardaweel
said in a press conference a few days ago that Hamas recognizes the PLO as an
organization, but didn't say that Hamas recognizes PLO as the only
representative for the Palestinians.
In 1993, the Central Council for PLO
decided to form the Palestine National Authority (PNA) to take control of the
West Bank and Gaza Strip after Israeli army left there according to the Oslo
Accords.
Azmi Shoabe, independence deputy in the pervious Palestinian
Legislative Council (PLC), told Xinhua that "the PNA was established in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip by a decision from the PLO and the PLO has the right now to
cancel this authority by the law."
But Abed Raboo said that the PLO would not
take this step.
"We hope Hamas will understand the law and don't play with us
as well as with the Palestinian people."
The PLO was established in 1965 and
head by late leader Yasser Arafat. Since then, it was considered as the
Palestinian union for 13 Palestinian factions, including the Fatah, the PFLP,
the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), and Palestinian
Communist Party.
The PLO represented the Palestinian side to have signed with
Israel the Oslo Accords in 1993, which led to the formation of the PNA and the
PLC.
Hamas, which emerged in the first Palestinian uprising in 1987, refused
to join the PLO and acted as the other Palestinian side that represents the
Palestinians.
"We gave bloods and thousands of martyrs over the past years to
have a full international recognition of the PLO as a representation of all the
Palestinians. Hamas has no right to ignore the rule," Abed Raboo noted.
Hamas
considered that after its victory in the Jan. 25 Palestinian parliamentary
election, it has the right to lead the Palestinian people without the PLO.
In
response to Hamas attitude toward the PLO, Abed Raboo said that "the Palestinian
people elected Hamas because they wanted to punish corruption in the authority
but not to cancel the basic Palestinian constitution."
Hamas, which secured
74 seats in the 132-member PLC, decided to form a 24-member cabinet after its
efforts to bring forward a national unity government failed four weeks after
Haneya was designated to form the next cabinet on Feb. 21 by Abbas.
The new
cabinet line-up is to be submitted to the PLC for a confidence vote after
Abbas's approval.
Xinhua
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