Sunday 8 August 2010

Egypt rejects reconciliation understandings reached by Hamas and Fatah

[ 07/08/2010 - 02:19 PM ]

CAIRO, (PIC)-- A press source said on condition of anonymity that Egypt refused to accept any understandings reached between Hamas and Fatah factions for the signing of its reconciliation paper, the thing which frustrated the Palestinian reconciliation committee.

The source added that the Palestinian reconciliation committee told the Egyptian side that Hamas agreed to sign the paper on condition that the new understandings with Fatah should be taken into account, but Egypt rejected that without giving reasons.

Hamas and Fatah managed to reach lately under the auspices of the Palestinian reconciliation committee understandings that would lead to the signing of Egypt's reconciliation paper.

The source stressed that this Egyptian refusal is a new obstacle to the achievement of the inter-Palestinian reconciliation and questioned the purpose behind such position.

In another context, Palestinian minister of interior Fathi Hammad announced on Thursday that the Palestinian government in Gaza would release some prisoners and reduce the imprisonment terms of others on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan.

Beitawi: The escalating political arrests in W. Bank do not help end division


[ 07/08/2010 - 10:31 AM ]

NABLUS, (PIC)-- Prominent Hamas official and lawmaker Hamed Al-Beitawi stated that the escalating political arrest campaign, which is carried out in the West Bank and led lately to the kidnapping of his sons and dozens of women and men, does not help create the atmosphere appropriate for the national reconciliation.

In a press statement published on Friday by Quds Press, Beitawi said that the arrest of two of his sons is part of the campaign waged by Mahmoud Abbas's security militias against Hamas cadres and supporters in the West Bank.

"I have four sons, the first one is engineer Islam, who is married with four children and work for Al-Tadamon charity which was licensed to operate 60 years ago. He is now imprisoned in the preventive security headquarters in Ramallah," the lawmaker noted.

"And Ahmed, a journalist for the international Tadamon society, is imprisoned in the intelligence headquarters, while Fadel and Nasr have been summoned for the past week to the security branches, almost on a daily basis," he added talking about his sons.

The Hamas official pointed out that the arrest campaign also targeted lately dozens of Palestinian women who many of them were transferred to hospitals because of their exposure to maltreatment in cells or during interrogation sessions.

The official highlighted the recent arrest of dozens of successful professors at Al-Najah university and dozens of different employees to force them to quit their jobs or stop their solidarity with Hamas.

For its part, the Ramallah center for human rights studies expressed its deep concern over the increasing violation of civil liberties and the rule of law demonstrated by Abbas's security militias in the West Bank.

The Ramallah center warned that these violations would reduce the margin of public freedom in the Palestinian society, including the academic freedom and called for stopping all arrests conducted because of individuals' political or ideological affiliations.

It also called for expanding the margin of the freedom of the press, stopping committing violations against journalists and media institutions and referring to the law in dealing with individuals and institutions.

In a new incident, Abbas's militias kidnapped 15 Palestinian citizens, all of them are either Hamas supporters or cadres, in the cities of Ramallah and Salfit, according to the latest reports issued on Saturday by Hamas Movement.

The London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper said in a separate context that an atmosphere of uncertainty and wonder about the price for the latest US decision to raise the level of the Palestinian representation in Washington is prevailing inside the Palestinian Authority (PA) and among its diplomats abroad.

The newspaper added that a number of experts and ambassadors expressed concern that this diplomatic upgrade could be a prelude to another US decision represented in transferring the American embassy to the occupied city of Jerusalem.

It also said that this upgrade of the PA representation in Washington could be a "political bribe" for something that would be clearer in the coming weeks or months.

In this regard, ex-chief of the PA Mahmoud Abbas recently approved new appointments in his diplomatic corps.

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