Arafat said Israel had used the September 11 attacks on the U.S. to portray Palestinian resistance to occupation as “terrorism”

GAZA, September 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s keynote address to parliament on Monday, September 9, was criticized by the Islamic resistance movement Hamas as falling short of the expectations of the Palestinian people and by Israel as not explicitly calling for an end to anti-Israeli attacks.

The speech “does not live up to the expectations of our people on the security level,” a Hamas leader, Ismail Haniya, told Agence France Presse (AFP).

“These can only be achieved, in our view, through continued resistance and a general mobilization to face up to the [Israeli] aggression,” the official said.

“Their security [of Israel] can not come at the expense of that of our people, who are victims of bombings, destruction and crimes,” he said.

Arafat earlier condemned attacks on civilians inside Israel while not explicitly calling for an end to such strikes, and lashed out at Israel’s ongoing military aggression in the Palestinian territories.

In his first speech to the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) in six months, he said he wanted “peace, security and stability for us and you [the Israelis] on the basis of the accords we signed.”

Haniya also said the political reforms launched by Arafat and his Palestinian Authority had failed to go far enough.

He stressed “the need to carry out radical reforms and implement them, instead of being satisfied with a change of faces or consolidating the institutions already in place.”

In his address in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Arafat pointed to the appointment in June 2002 of new ministers in the Palestinian Authority.

“We want a clean administration, a democratic political life, the implementation of the rule of law and an independent judiciary,” said the veteran Palestinian leader.

“If you want, you can bring somebody and replace me in the executive power, I wish you’d do it and give me some rest,” Arafat told MPs, although the comment was made with a smile.

Meanwhile in occupied Jerusalem, Israel deplored the fact that Arafat did not explicitly call for an end to anti-Israeli attacks in his keynote address to parliament.

“Why did he not declare a ceasefire, even unilateral, in front of this assembly? Why did he not make a visible gesture? If he had, I can promise you we would have followed suit,” government spokesman Avi Pazner told AFP.

“The Palestinian people stand today firmly against all kinds of terrorism, whether it is by states, groups or individuals,” Arafat told the Palestinian parliament in his first speech in months.

But he stopped short of explicitly calling on militant groups to stop their attacks, on either side of the Green Line separating the West Bank from Israel.

“He’s made declarations about peace, he’s made declarations about denouncing terrorism ... but we had an escalation of terrorism,” Dore Gold, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, told CNN.

“The most important thing we can hear right now is not just the statements that Mr. Arafat made but actually orders given to Palestinian security services to finally once and for all take action to stop the kinds of attacks that are still going on everyday,” Gold told the news network.

“What we are saying right now is stop the terrorism, don’t just talk about stopping the terrorism ... and then Israel can negotiate with a responsible Palestinian leadership.”

When asked about Arafat’s argument that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories was a major obstacle to any settlement, Gold retorted: “This is the ‘phony argument’ of the decade.”

The Palestinian President said Israel had used last September’s attacks on the United States to portray the Palestinian resistance to occupation as “terrorism.”

Speaking ahead of the September 11 anniversary of the attacks on New York and Washington, Arafat extended his condolences to the victims and said he was willing to join the U.S.-led war on terror, if it stayed within international law, AFP said.

“I’d like to tell the whole world and in particular the United States we are fully prepared to participate in any international effort to eradicate that kind of terrorism within the framework of the United Nations and international legitimacy,” he said.

But he said Israel had used the opportunity of the attacks to paint the Palestinian resistance as “terrorism”.

“The Israeli government manipulated the changes after September 11 in order to brand our struggle terrorist and to cover the reoccupation of our land, while we are victims of terror,” he said.

He added a barb against the United States, saying: “Israel has been buoyed by the American stand and has received support as a result of these attacks”.

He said Israel’s ongoing military occupation of the West Bank and parts of the Gaza Strip had removed a “horizon for peace” and was also threatening Palestinian presidential and parliamentary elections slated for January next year.

“Presidential and parliamentary elections must take place but in a democratic atmosphere. Israel must lift its siege of Palestinian cities, withdraw its tanks ... so that our people will be able to exert their democratic rights,” he said, calling for international observers to oversee the polls.  

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