DAMASCUS, (PIC)-- Hamas movement described on Saturday the PLO executive committee's decision to return to negotiations with the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) as a "political sin".The movement said in a statement that the PLO decision does not represent a Palestinian unanimity.
It added that the PLO had bowed to Zio-American pressures and given up Palestinian national rights and interests.
Hamas said that the decision is not binding to the Palestinian people, noting that it coincided with the IOA decision to cancel previous intention to demolish "random settlement outposts" in the West Bank and to turn them into "legal" outposts.
Islamic Jihad movement, for its part, lashed out at the PLO's decision, describing pretexts voiced by the PLO in this respect as "sheer deception".
The movement called for restructuring the PLO, adding that until then it does not enjoy representation of the Palestinian people.
The PLO's executive committee decided, in its meeting on Saturday, to return to indirect negotiations with the IOA after receiving a green light from the Arab follow up committee.
Yasser Abed Rabo, the executive committee's secretary, told a press conference after the meeting in Ramallah that the decision was taken with the majority of votes, adding that it was based on the American guarantees.
08/05/2010 As expected, and despite all aggressions and attacks, the Palestinian Authority simply decided to "offer" the enemy another "chance," perhaps to prove his "goodwill"!
On Saturday, the Palestinian Authority got the green light to restart so-called peace talks with Israel after the Palestine Liberation Organization's executive committee voted to approve indirect negotiations.
At a meeting in Ramallah in the West Bank, PLO officials backed a motion for the first talks between the sides in 18 months, to be brokered by United States peace envoy George Mitchell.
PLO spokesman Yasser Abed Rabbo said after the meeting that the vote marked the official start of the talks. "The negotiations will take one form: shuttling between President Abu Mazen and the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu," he said. "As far as we are concerned, the start of the indirect negotiations can be announced today".
The PLO decision came despite warnings from Palestinian Resistance group Hamas, which said on Friday that the move would only legitimize Israel's occupation. "Absurd proximity talks" would only "give the Israeli occupation an umbrella to commit more crimes against the Palestinians", Hamas said in a statement. "Hamas calls on the PLO to stop selling illusions to the Palestinian people and announce the failure of their gambling on absurd talks," the statement said.
On Friday, the Chinese Xinuah news agency said that the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a left-wing Palestinian militant group, had also rejected the idea of proximity talks, saying negotiations would be "ill and absurd, whether direct or indirect".
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had previously agreed in principle to participate in indirect peace talks with Israel, but claimed he required formal backing from the PLO's governing body.
Abbas' spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah said last week that all of the 'final status would be on the table when negotiations restarted. "Absolutely no issue will be excluded and Jerusalem will be the top priority," Rdainah said.
On Friday, Abbas told Mitchell during a Ramallah meeting that Israel must make the choice between peace and settlements.
Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said that the Palestinians wanted to give the negotiations a chance, but that success was mainly up to Israel, whose actions could doom the peace process. "If the price that we will pay for saying yes to Mitchell will be more settlements and more dictations, that's a big question mark about the possibility of continuing," Erekat said. "Now the Israeli government has a choice, either peace or settlements, and it can't have both."
Mitchell arrived in the region earlier this week and has held two days of talks with Netanyahu. He was scheduled to meet with Abbas on Saturday and Sunday, Erekat said.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
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