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| Arafat:
“We must prepare for elections”
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RAMALLAH,
West Bank, May 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat called Wednesday, May 15, for a complete overhaul
of his Palestinian Authority and for fresh elections, amid growing
Israeli and U.S. pressure for reforms to his leadership.
Arafat
also accepted blame for making mistakes during the tortuous peace
process, claiming "full responsibility" for deals made in
the siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and his own
Ramallah office complex.
The
Israeli government offered a muted initial response to the address,
one government spokesman saying it showed "the same old
Arafat."
In
a 40-minute speech before the Palestinian Legislative Council, Arafat
for the first time addressed growing Palestinian calls for reforms to
his eight-year-old administration.
"I
will present a new formula for the administration of the Palestinian
Authority and its ministries and security apparatus in order to
rebuild it on a firmer basis," he told a special parliamentary
session.
"Nothing
is wrong with re-evaluation. We should discuss everything that was
correct and what was wrong - and this re-evaluation should focus on
all aspects of political life," he said.
"This
is the time for work, for reconstruction, for correction."
He
also called on the council to "rapidly prepare for
elections," without giving a date for the polls.
"We
must prepare for elections and prepare for reforms," he said to
applause from the gathered legislature members.
The
first and only Palestinian elections were held in January 1996, two
years after the launch of Palestinian self-rule under the Oslo
autonomy accords with Israel.
In
his first address to parliament since emerging at the start of May
from five months of being pinned down in his Ramallah HQ by the
Israeli army, Arafat also admitted to making errors and called for
"badly needed" reforms.
"If
there was an error, I am the one to blame," Arafat said. "We
are now trying to repair our errors.
"We
are now badly in need of re-evaluation of our policies and our plans,
in order to repair our errors, to correct our march toward
independence."
The
official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported earlier that Arafat had
issued a law on judicial independence, part of a package of measures
he pledged after the siege on his Ramallah headquarters was lifted on
May 1.
A
statement from the Palestinian Authority following a meeting in
Ramallah presided over by Arafat late Tuesday said the law would be
published in full and would come into immediate effect.
Both
the United States and Israel have been pressuring Arafat into
introducing sweeping reforms of the Palestinian Authority.
However,
while the Israeli government said it would assess Arafat's speech in
full before giving its full assessments, its initial reaction was
lukewarm at best.
"He
did not say anything new," Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's
spokesman Raanan Gissin told AFP. "Arafat is the same old
Arafat."
Arafat’s
speech also comes after Nabil Amr, minister of parliamentary affairs
in the PA, resigned ten days ago over differences with the Palestinian
leadership on the need to reshuffle the cabinet.
"I
suggested appointing a cabinet to deal with pending affairs before
choosing a cabinet which includes the best qualified Palestinians
across the world and not only members of the Legislative
council," or parliament, Amr said at the time.
On
Tuesday, Sharon in an address to the Israeli parliament accused the
Palestinian Authority of being "dictatorial and corrupt" and
said no talks would be held until it carried out fundamental reforms.
And
U.S. President George W. Bush, whose administration has sided with
Israel in accusing Arafat of not doing enough to crack down on
Palestinian militants, said last week that the Palestinian leadership
was at fault.
In
his address to the legislative council, Arafat said he was still
dedicated to peace as a strategic option.
"Peace
was and will remain our strategic option. I will never give it away
... because peace is in our joint interest," said the veteran
Palestinian leader.
"We
continue to extend our hand for a just peace - a peace of the
brave," he said, adding that "we have no other way but to be
patient ... in the face of this aggression."
