By: Baruch Yedid
The secretaries-general of all Palestinian organizations that are members of the PLO convened in Beirut over the weekend, along with senior representatives of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad, an event held simultaneously in Beirut and Ramallah via video conference.
Palestinian Authority chairman and the head of Fatah Mahmoud Abbas attended the conference from Ramallah.
The conference addressed a number of issues, including the Palestinian opposition to the US-formulated Deal of the Century, the formation of a front against the normalization processes between Israel and the Arabs, a re-examination of the Oslo Accords and the demand to revoke the recognition of Israel, described by Hamas leader Ismail Haniya as the “Triangle Threat.”
This is the first meeting in nine years in which all the heads of the Palestinian terrorist organizations sat with Fatah and the Palestinian Authority. It was preceded by a leadership meeting in Ramallah three weeks ago with representatives of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad in response to the peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and the Deal of the Century.
In the concluding statement, the factions condemned all manifestations of normalization between Israel and the Arab states, emphasized their right to “a popular struggle,” a euphemism for violence against Israel, and the need to end the Palestinian division.
The conference decided to establish a committee that would deal with the formulation of the methods of “the popular struggle” and another committee that would deal with the end of the internal division.
Haniya stated that in the face of the “Triple Threat,” the Palestinians must create unity in the struggle and methods of resistance, reorganize the PLO to include all Palestinian organizations and put an end to the split.
In his remarks, Haniya emphasized that “there is no state in Gaza and no state without Gaza,” and Abu Mazen also repeated this sentence.
During his speech, Haniya said that the Palestinians had been offered several proposals for the establishment of a separate state in the Gaza Strip, but Hamas rejected them in favor of Palestinian unity.
Abbas said the goal was to combine Palestinian forces against “the dangerous conspiracy,” the Deal of the Century, and that internal reconciliation should be brought about by elections while recognizing that the PLO is the sole representative of the Palestinian people.
(TPS)
