June 13, 2005

The Palestinian Authority (PA) media opened their front pages and broadcasts Monday with reports that the Joint Higher Committee (PA-Fatah-Hamas-Jihad) had met and condemned Israel for violations of the “tahdiyya” which were going to lead to its total collapse.

From Palestinian Newspapers – June 13:

Al-Quds (lead item) “HANIYYA: HAMAS TO FORM UNTY COALITION GOVERNMENT IF IT WINGS MAJORITY IN LEGISLATIVE ELECTIONS;

(off-lead): THE [PALESTINIAN] AUTHORITY CARRIES OUT THE EXECUTION OF FOUR CRIMINALS CONVICTED OF MURDER

[article notes HAMAS SAID IT TOO WOULD BEGIN EXECUTING ‘AGENTS’ OF ISRAEL, see details and background analysis below]

Other Al-Quds Item: Palestinian Authority Releases From Jail in Jericho Two Islamic Jihad Operatives Involved in Tel Aviv Nightclub Attack.

Top-of-page-picture: Palestinian policemen holding automatic weapons guarding one of several Palestinian courts after the execution of the four Palestinian men.
[See pdf.alquds.com/2005/6/13/page1.pdf.]

Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda Cartoon, June 11, 2005-shows Israeli soldier Palestinian undercover agents [collaborators who are labeled ‘agents’ in the cartoon] into Palestinian society in order to undermine it. Caption: “THE GOALS: ANY DECENT PALESTINIAN CITIZEN.”
[See www.alhayat-j.com/char.php?cid=104 ]

PBC Television — interview and lead-in

In the Joint Higher Committee, Hamas representative Khader Habib, in an on-screen interview, said “In keeping with our meeting with the President (Mahmoud Abbas), we met,…we discussed the tahdiyya and Israeli assaults on it, and we agreed on a communiqué putting responsibility for all these violations on Israel.”

Tawfiq Abu-Housa of the PA Ministry of Interior appeared in an interview defending the executions of four prisoners, saying the executions were carried out under Palestinian law and would be a deterrent to crime. [Note: parts of interview also carried several times on afternoon and evening of June 12.]

“This was a message to all who violate the law,” said the PA official.

Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda: DEATH SENTENCES CARRIED OUR FOR GREAT CRIMES IN GAZA [top of page pictures similar to Al-Quds]

Background Analysis

The regime of Mahmoud Abbas has resumed the policy of executions that Arafat himself had suspended, quietly executing four men on Sunday, some of whom were convicted as early as 1995. AT the same time, Abbas released two members of Islamic Jihad who had been picked up on intelligence supplied by Israel, and whom Israel said were involved in the February bombing of a Tel Aviv nightclub in which five people died and more than 20 wounded.

Meanwhile, the PA is not backing away from its refusal to disarm Hamas or Jihad gunmen. Once again, on Monday (June 13) PBC Television repeated coverage of Foreign Minister Nasser Al-Qudwa’s remarks that the PA would not disarm Palestinians because “the Palestinian people are in a situation of defending themselves.”

Report compiled by Michael Widlanski Associates.
Commissioned by the Center for Near East Policy Research.
[Permission to quote or reprint from article conditional on citing Michael Widlanski or Michael Widlanski Associates.]
Dr. Michael Widlanski is a specialist in Arab politics and communication whose doctorate dealt with the Palestinian broadcast media. He is a former reporter, correspondent and editor, respectively, at The New York Times, The Cox Newspapers-Atlanta Constitution, and The Jerusalem Post.

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