Last update - 00:00 29/08/2007
Israel mulling Abbas request to extend amnesty plan with Fatah
By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent
Israel is considering a Palestinian request to include in its amnesty for Fatah fugitives 26 militants expelled in 2002 after a siege on the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
The request, made by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas during his meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday, calls for the inclusion of the 26 fugitives in an amnesty scheme offered to members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades earlier this summer. Some in the current request are from Fatah rivals such as Hamas.
The amnesty being considered for the Bethlehem exiles is spread over a three-month period, during which they are expected to present themselves daily at PA security headquarters in the city. In addition, they will be forbidden to carry arms or be members of any militant organization.
Sources in the Shin Bet security service said Tuesday that the case of each exiled militant will be examined individually and a decision will be made on whether to allow them to return to Bethlehem.
Unlike the amnesty deal offered to the Al-Aqsa militants in the West Bank, there are members of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine among the 26. These are not likely to be allowed back into the city by Israel.
In addition to the 26 exiled to the Gaza Strip, another 13 militants who were part of the same standoff in the Church of the Nativity were expelled abroad.
One of them, Jihad Jara, who is in Dublin, told Haaretz that the head of negotiations with Israel in the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Saeb Erekat, informed him that the 26 are likely to be allowed back to Bethlehem before Id al-Fitr at the end of Ramadan - less than two months from now.
Jara also said that the negotiations on his future and that of his 12 colleagues expelled abroad will only start after the completion of the amnesty agreement for the 26 exiled to the Gaza Strip.
Erekat confirmed Jara's claims in statements at a press conference in Ramallah following the Abbas-Olmert meeting in Jerusalem on Tuesday.
The senior Palestinian negotiator also said that the two leaders discussed elements of the final-status agreement, although not in detail. No specific documented proposals were discussed.
"The Palestinian Authority had not received any document from Israel and none were given on the matter of the framework [principles] agreement," Erekat said.
Erekat stressed that the PA rejects any idea of an interim Palestinian state. "We did not discuss it and we will not discuss it, either directly or indirectly," he said.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayad announced Tuesday that his government has decided to close down 103 welfare and social affairs institutions and organizations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Fayad explained that these institutions operated contrary to the law in their activities among the Palestinian people.
The decision to close down these organizations is an effort to curtail Hamas-affiliated groups and their activities with the overall population.
The Fayad government has ordered the closing of the bank accounts of these institutions. It is still unclear how this decision will be enforced in the Gaza Strip.