GAZA, February 20, 2005(IPC+ Al-Ayam)-[Official PA website]

The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, renowned as “Abu Mazen” stated on Saturday that he is seeking to clinch a deal for cease fire with the armed resistance factions not to use force against them. Interviewed by the German Der Spiegel magazine, Abu Mazen said that the Palestinian National Authority is not intended to battle with Palestinian factions but to strike an a agreement. Mr. Abass pointed out that the military wings of Hams and Fateh movements should be integrated in the Palestinian security forces.

Hisham Abu Taha, Arab News, RAMALLAH, February 20, 2005
www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=59263&d=20&m=2&y=2005

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he opposes any use of force to disarm Palestinian groups. “We don’t want conflict with the armed organizations, but agreement,” he said.

Khaled Abu Toameh, THE JERUSALEM POST, February 16, 2005

About 350 Palestinian gunmen will be incorporated into the Palestinian Authority security forces soon as part of a deal reached between PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and leaders of all the Palestinian factions…

The militiamen, who are on Israel’s list of wanted terrorists, belong to various factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad. This is the first time that members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad would serve in the PA security forces…

…”The fugitives who will join the security forces belong to all the Palestinian groups and factions,” [PA Minister of Agriculture Ibrahim Abu al-]Naja said. “The move is designed to protect them against Israeli assassination attempts.”

LARA SUKHTIAN The Associated Press
Monday, February 14, 2005

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip – Palestinian policemen, who have been given the task of restraining militants, say they can’t or won’t do the job.

Interviewed at their front-line positions, some say they feel sympathy for the gunmen, while others fear getting shot at by Israeli troops…. “It’s terrifying,” said one officer, who like his colleagues spoke on condition of anonymity, in line with police regulations. “We’re stuck between the settlers and soldiers on one side, and the fighters on the other.”

…a policeman said he was not willing to risk his life when Abbas gives no clear instructions on how to deal with militants. While the Palestinian leader has said he wants police to restore calm, he also stresses the need to avoid confrontations. In addition, many policemen have relatives who are militants. “I will never raise my weapons against the fighters,” one officer said. “I can only ask them not to fire.”

…Many officers are more loyal to their clans or to militant groups than to the Palestinian leadership. One top security official estimated 80 percent of all killings in Gaza in recent years were committed by members of the security forces, but said they are rarely brought to justice.

Khaled Abu Toameh, THE JERUSALEM POST, February 14, 2005

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has agreed to unfreeze Hamas funds held in a number of Palestinian banks, Palestinian sources in Gaza City said Monday.

The sources said Hamas leaders who met with Abbas last Saturday raised the subject, urging him to rescind an earlier decision to freeze the funds. They said Abbas accepted the Hamas request and decided to release the funds, including a private bank account belonging to slain Hamas leader and founder Ahmed Yassin.

Palestine Media Center – January 28, 2005
PMC [Official PA website] www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=1&id=810

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has insisted that inter-Palestinian dialogue is the only way to reach a national consensus on how to protect national interests and repeatedly rejected Israeli dictates to crack down on Palestinian factions as a recipe for infighting and civil war.

January 16, 2005
Israel Television Channel 2

Arab Affairs Correspondent Ehud Yaari reported on the evening news…that while the PLO Executive Committee issued a call today for “halting all military acts that harm our national interests,” that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen) has yet to follow up this call with orders to PA security to take action in the field.

Abbas met with PA security officials…but did not issue instructions to the PA security heads in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip to take action to stop the Palestinian attacks.

(Scotsman-UK) January 11, þ2005

Nabil Amr, a Palestinian legislator and close ally of Mahmoud Abbas, outlined Abbas’s coming steps. “He will start immediately to open the political track with the Israelis and he must reach immediate agreement with Hamas and the other factions to calm the situation, to convince Sharon to open a new page for the new Palestinian leadership.” “If Abu Mazen succeeds in getting a real easing of conditions, I’m sure he will create a new atmosphere and people will support his strategy.”

Abbas, said Amr, will ask Sharon to drop the demand specified in the road map that the PA dismantle “terrorist capabilities and infrastructure” and instead accept a ceasefire by the armed groups. “If Abu Mazen succeeds in reaching a ceasefire and containing all these groups, the Israelis must be satisfied. We will not punish any group, we will contain them by our own way, not Sharon’s way.”

CBS/AP, Ramallah, January 10, 2005

In his acceptance speech, Abbas said he faces a difficult mission, but he reiterated that he would not go after militants. Instead, he said, he wants to “give our fugitives a life of dignity,” referring to those wanted by Israel.

“I present this victory to the soul of Yasser Arafat and present it to our people and to our martyrs.”

HAARETZ January 5, 2005

Leading Palestinian chairmanship candidate Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) yesterday called Israel the “Zionist enemy,” a marked escalation in his campaign rhetoric.

Abbas spoke to thousands of supporters after seven Palestinians were killed by an Israeli tank shell in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahia. “We came to you today, while we are praying for the souls of the martyrs who were killed by the shells of the Zionist enemy in Beit Lahia,” Abbas said during a campaign stop in Khan Yunis.

ALBEIRA, Palestine, December 27, 2004 (IPC+ Agencies)
[Official PA website] www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=1707

Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the January 9 presidential candidate, Mr. Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), stressed on Monday on the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, mainly the rights of refugees to return back to Palestine and to establish an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. Mr. Abu Mazen’s remarks came in a meeting he held with various businessmen from the various West Bank areas in the Albeira City.

Khaled Abu Toameh, THE JERUSALEM POST, December 25, 2004
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1103963958205&p=1101615860782

In his first official campaign speech, PLO chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) said on Saturday that he would not employ force against any Palestinian group and called for an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders as a prerequisite for achieving peace.

“I will not use weapons against any Palestinian,” he stressed. “Israel calls them [the armed groups] murderers, but we call them strugglers. The Palestinians have political pluralism just like Israel.”

Kuwait, December 12, 2004 (SANA-Official Syrian News Agency)
www.sana.org/english/headlines/12-12/abbass.htm

Abbass stressed in an interview published by the Kuwaiti daily al-Ray al-Aam today that the Palestinian problem needs the combination of efforts to achieve the Palestinian national project represented by the establishment of the Palestinian state with Jerusalem as it capital, and the return of the refugees.

[Beirut] Daily Star staff Thursday, December 09, 2004

Referring to the two-year-long intifada in the Occupied Territories, Abbas said “Ninety-nine percent of Palestinian people are in favor of calming the situation down. What we have now is not an intifada or armed struggle; we merely have the use of weapons.”

From a Newsweek interview, November 28, 2004

“We fought Hamas in 1996. Now things have changed. We have to deal with them delicately. We have to ask them to stop everything – to have law and order.”

Haaretz, November 23, 2004
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/505214.html

“We promise you [Arafat] that our heart will not rest until we achieve the right of return for our people and end the tragic refugee issue,” PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas(aka Abu Mazen) to the Palestinian parliament.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR