CAIRO,
March 15, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Hours before taking part in an
inter-Palestinian dialogue hosted by Egypt, Hamas said reaching a
formal ceasefire with Israel is conditional on the release of all
Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails and halting incessant
incursions against the Palestinian people.
“Hamas
would neither make concessions nor give up the inalienable rights of
the Palestinian people,” Mohamed Nezal, a leading Hamas figure, said
in a seminar organized Monday, March 14, by IslamOnline.net in Cairo.
Hamas
pledged on February 12 to maintain a de facto truce and not to
immediately retaliate any Israeli aggression, while it weighs a formal
ceasefire with Tel Aviv.
Nezal
said the Cairo talks are primarily aimed at comparing notes among the
factions and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen).
The
new round of the Palestinian dialogue is expected to kick off later on
Tuesday.
It
groups leaders of the resistance groups such as Khaled Meshal; the
Hamas politburo chief, Ramadan Shallah; the secretary general of the
Islamic Jihad, and leader of the Democratic Front for the Liberation
of Palestine (DFLP) Naef Hawatma, who attends the meeting for the
first time.
The
Palestinian Authority and the mainstream Fatah movement will be
represented by Abu Mazen and his Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei.
Restructuring
Nezal
said that restructuring the “Palestinian home” is also high on the
agenda.
“Media
propagate that the Palestinian dialogue mainly aims at reaching a
long-term ceasefire with Israel, ignoring the Palestinian unity which
is in no way less important than the truce thing,” he said.
Earlier
on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon rejected any truce with
the resistance factions, demanding Abu Mazen to dismantle what he
termed “terrorist groups.”
“The
ceasefire the Palestinians are working for does not give up the terror
option, and is not a solution, and to this we cannot agree,” Reuters
quoted the hawkish premier as saying during a meeting with visiting
Dutch Prime Minister Jan Pieter Balkenende.
Joint
Political Program
 |
|
Abu
Mazen angered Israel by pledging to release resistance leader
Ahmad Saadat from his prison in Jericho. (Reuters)
|
Nezal
said the Cairo meeting will also probe tools of establishing a joint
Palestinian political program.
“We
want to know where we (Hamas) stand with the Palestinian Authority on
forming a joint political program,” he told the well-attended
seminar.
An
Egyptian source close to the talks told IOL on Monday that
participants in the dialogue have already reached an agreement on
several issues tabled on the meeting's agenda, including holding a
long-term ceasefire with Israel.
The
source, however, stressed that the meeting will only discuss
guarantees for stabilizing such a truce, chiefly halting Israeli
incursions and assassination of resistance leaders.
Egyptian
and Palestinian sources further said that the dialogue will not tackle
final-status issues like the return of the Palestinian refugees.
Israeli
Threats
But
Israel threatened on Tuesday to call off peacemaking moves with the
Palestinians if Abu Mazen released Ahmad Saadat, the DFLP leader, from
his prison in Jericho.
“We
will weigh carefully if there is any way of continuing the process
when the message from Abu Mazen's side is becoming so negative and so
contrary to the new spirit we would like to see,” Israeli Foreign
Minister Silvan Shalom told Israel Radio.
Abu
Mazen told Reuters that Saadat will be released from prison in Jericho
when Jericho is handed over to the Palestinians.
Saadat
and three others are accused of involvement in the killing of Israeli
Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi.
Zeevi's
killing was claimed by the DFLP which said it was in retaliation for
the Israeli assassination of its leader Abu Ali Mustafa.
An
Israeli security source, nevertheless, told Reuters on Tuesday that
Israel will hand Jericho to Palestinian control as planned on
Wednesday, March 16, despite Abu Mazen’s pledge to free Saadat.
Palestinian
estimates put at some 7600 the number of the Palestinian prisoners in
Israeli jails.
Following
Sharm El-Sheikh summit between Abbas and Sharon, the Israeli
government pledged to release 900 Palestinian prisoners.
But
few days later, Israel backed down on its promise, setting free only
500 prisoners, most of whom were administrative detainees who had
nothing to do with resistance activities.
