Haniyeh: National accord document deserves study

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh responded publicly for the first time yesterday to the "national reconciliation" drafted last week in the Hadarim prison by Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti and Sheikh Abdel Halek Natshe of Hamas.

The document calls for accepting the principle of establishing a Palestinian state on the land occupied in 1967 as well as the agreements signed previously by the PA with Israel and the international community.

"The document was drafted in Hadarim Prison, and the other prisons are not a party to it and therefore it must be studied further, but it contains worthy principles to which agreement is possible," Haniyeh said yesterday in a speech at a two-day conference in Gaza on Palestinian refugees and the right of return. The conference marked the 58th anniversary of the Nakba, or "catastrophe," the Palestinian term for what happened to them in 1948.

"We always demanded Israel's recognition of Palestinian rights and the establishment of a Palestinian state, and if Israel recognizes these principles, then we will decide on our position on the matter," Haniyeh continued.

It should be noted that most Hamas supporters hav e distanced themselves from the document, while PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and most senior Fatah officials have welcomed it, calling for its adoption.

"The Zionist project is on the wane and its principles are becoming shaky, while the Palestinian and Arab project in Palestine is in an upward momentum, the results of which will be liberation of the land and Jerusalem and the realization of the right of return," Haniyeh told the conference. "We saw what happened to the occupation in Sinai, Lebanon and Jordan and the withdrawal from Gaza, and they are also considering additional withdrawals from the West Bank. All of this proves that there is a decline in the settlements project and an undermining of the occupation mentality, and that the occupation leaders can no longer defend this project, which is built on falsehood and on depriving others of their rights."

Regarding the right of return and the Nakba, Haniyeh said, "The occupation gambled on our elders dying and our young forgetting, but the reality is that our people is still struggling and the young are bringing about one revolution after another."

Haniyeh devoted part of his speech to Israel's Arabs, saying, "The Palestinians in the territories captured [in 1948] have maintained their identity and are renovating mosques and places of ritual for Muslims and Christians."