Unity Rally Held in Gaza, WB Haniya Urges Abbas for Immediate Talks Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya on Tuesday invited Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas for "immediate" talks to mend the bitter divide between their two movements and achieve reconciliation.
Haniya's remarks were made after an emergency meeting of his government held as tens of thousands of Palestinians rallied in central Gaza City and across the West Bank to urge reconciliation between Hamas and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority which rules from Ramallah.
The biggest gathering was in Gaza City, where officials from the Hamas-run interior ministry said vast crowds had packed into the city's Square of the Unknown Soldier. "There are tens of thousands of people already there, and there may be more on the way," interior ministry spokesman Ihab al-Ghussein told AFP.
In Ramallah, around 3,000 people had gathered in Manara Square, with hundreds more pouring in all the time, an AFP correspondent said.
The rallies, called by the March 15 protest movement and planned through Facebook by young activists demanding an end to the division between the rival Fatah and Hamas factions, are taking place simultaneously in the two cities. The demonstrations, organized by youth activists who say they have no political affiliation, are expected to receive widespread support across the territories, with similar protests planned outside Palestinian delegations overseas.
Hamas advocates popular marches calling for national unity
[ 15/03/2011 - 10:07 AM ]
[ 15/03/2011 - 10:07 AM ]
GAZA, (PIC)-- The Hamas Movement declared its support for the demands made by the Palestinian street which calls for initiating national dialog based on the protection of the Palestinian rights and constants, and leading to an end to the internal division.Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri urged in a news conference on Monday the Palestinian masses to actively take part in the popular moves to end the division and the marches to be held on Tuesday in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Spokesman Abu Zuhri also called for only raising and waiving the Palestinian flag during the marches in order to promote unity among all Palestinian spectra.
The spokesman also demanded the Fatah-controlled Palestinian authority (PA) to stop its political arrests, which were intensified nowadays in an attempt to prevent Hamas supporters from organizing or participating in any march advocating the national unity.
In a related context, the Palestinian ministry of interior in Gaza said it is committed to the government's instructions to protect the marches organized by young men.
Spokesman for the ministry Ihab Al-Gussein told a news conference on Monday that the Palestinian security apparatuses would work hard on protecting the noble goals of the Palestinian young men who want an end to the internal division.
For their part, the Palestinian factions affirmed following a meeting yesterday in Gaza its keenness on the success of the youth events that promote the national unity.
Senior Islamic Jihad leader Nafeth eAzzam said in a joint statement that all Palestinian factions and national forces support the popular moves aimed at ending the division and strengthening the internal front to confront the Israeli occupation.
In a separate incident, the Hamas Movement stated in a brief report that the PA security militias kidnapped in the first half of March 29 of its cards and supporters in the West bank, including 14 ex-detainees in Israeli jails.
Seven Palestinian citizens affiliated with Hamas also during the same period received different military imprisonment sentences issued by PA courts, while four women from the Movement and a number of university female students were summoned for interrogation by PA security apparatuses.
According to the report, the PA militias released three detainees from Hamas on bail amounted to 15, 000 Jordanian dinars from each one.
The Israeli occupation forces, for their part, during the reporting period kidnapped 27 others shortly after they were released from PA jails, while the PA militias detained a citizen called Mohamed Ashanti at Tarqumiya checkpoint upon his release from an Israeli prison, the Movement added.
Dweik calls for PLC unity session[ 15/03/2011 - 04:49 PM ]
AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- Speaker of the Palestinian legislative council (PLC) Dr. Aziz Al-Dweik has called for a PLC session in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank on Sunday 20/3/2011.
He said that the session would be in response to Palestinian popular demand for ending internal division and restoring unity and would be convened under the title of "Ending division the road to unity and liberation".
The speaker hoped in a statement on Tuesday that appropriate atmospheres would be furnished to make the session a success in a bid to reactivate the PLC, which has been paralyzed for more than four years.
[ 15/03/2011 - 05:11 PM ]
GAZA, (PIC)-- Gaza Prime Minister Mohammed Ismail Haneyya has called on rival Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas to immediately begin comprehensive national talks whether in Gaza or the venue of his choosing.
The statements came as a positive response to dozens of marches sweeping the Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning that included tens of thousands who demanded an end to the national split.
The Hamas party prevalent in the Strip has also announced it will answer to popular demands, and has called on the coordination bureau to better define national demands believed to contribute to the protestors' objective.
Haneyya instructed security forces to protect the protesters, despite a traffic crisis that ensued as several streets were closed off.
”I call upon Abu Mazen (Abbas) and Fatah to meet urgently and immediately in Gaza or any other agreed venue to begin direct national talks and discuss all issues and the challenges to reconciliation, in order to translate the popular calls as well as our desire to achieve reconciliation and end the division,” Haneyya said.
Haneyya welcomed the protests and pointed out that the split is due to such factors as foreign intervention and lack of political decision by West Bank leaders. He added that the government in Gaza had already proven its integrity in wanting reconciliation by its positive responses to several national, Arab and at times international initiatives.
He also touched on the possibility of staging a national conference aimed at discussing the future of the Palestinian cause.
Hamas has said it is fully prepared to kick start talks for an immediate end to the split, but it said in a statement that it wished the same ”democratic event” covered by the media would have taken place in the West Bank, or that there would have at least been a stop to ongoing political arrests to pave the way for reconciliation.
Marches swept cities across the West Bank, the largest in Gaza where protesters headed towards the unknown soldier monument in the western part of the city.
Protesters waved Palestinian flags and refused to carry partisan ones and shouted anti-split chants..
They have pitched tents at the unkonwn soldier monument and vowed not to leave until the split has ended.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
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