Fatah Rejects Attacks on Israelis

Sept 10, 2002
By HADEEL WAHDAN, Associated Press Writer

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - Creating a small opening for a truce, Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement said Tuesday it opposes and will prevent attacks on Israeli civilians, but hinted it will keep targeting Israelis in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Fatah said attacks on Israeli civilians conflict with the Palestinian national interest, and for the first time also cited moral reasons for opposing the violence.

The release of the three-page statement was shrouded in some confusion. Some Fatah officials said the text has already been sent to regional leaders, while others said it was not yet the final version. The Fatah leader in the West Bank, Marwan Barghouti, expressed his reservations in a statement from an Israeli jail, emphasizing that the group reserved the right to fight Israeli occupation.

The Fatah appeal, if confirmed, would be another sign that truce efforts are gaining some momentum, though several Palestinian militant groups have said they would not halt attacks. The appeal echoed a speech by Arafat the day before in which he condemned terror attacks, saying they undermined Palestinian interests, though he stopped short of demanding attacks stop.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who recently said that for the first time in months he saw the opening for a return to peace talks, is to meet in the coming days with Arafat's deputy, Mahmoud Abbas, to try to end two years of fighting.

On Tuesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres was to hold talks with five Palestinian Cabinet ministers on reviving a gradual truce and easing Israeli travel restrictions on some 3 million Palestinians.

In the West Bank town of Ramallah, meanwhile, the Palestinian parliament convened for a debate on Arafat's new Cabinet, formed in a reshuffle in June. The vote, seen as a major test of Arafat's standing, was not expected before Wednesday. A group of legislators threatened to topple the Cabinet, saying Arafat has failed to fire corrupt and incompetent ministers.

Arafat has been weakened in recent months. He is being shunned by the United States, Israel is trying to sideline him and many Palestinians are dissatisfied with what they see as vague promises to carry out reforms and fight corruption.

Arafat's Fatah movement has been among his main critics, with activists demanding that he share power by appointing a prime minister — a demand also backed by the United States. Arafat has resisted naming a prime minister.

In Fatah, a stormy debate has raged in recent months regarding attacks on Israelis. A Fatah-affiliated militia, the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, has carried out scores of shooting attacks on Israeli soldiers, settlers and motorists in the West Bank and Gaza in the past two years.

The militia is also responsible for several shooting and bombing attacks in Israel, often in retaliation for the killing of militia leaders by Israel.

Fatah leaders, including Barghouti, who is standing trial in Israel, has said in the past that he opposes attacks in Israel.

In Tuesday's statement, Fatah reiterated the position, and said for the first time that it try to prevent them. "We reject and will prevent all attacks on Israeli civilians to preserve the higher national interest of the Palestinian people and in accordance with our moral values and tolerant religion," it said.

However, Fatah said it would continue resisting Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. The leaflet did not specifically say that attacks in these areas would continue, but the word resistance is usually taken to mean that.

In his statement from jail, Barghouti said that "we reserve our right ... to resist the Israeli occupation."

An Israeli government spokesman said Fatah's partial moratorium on attacks was insufficient. "Attacks on innocent civilians are terrorism, no matter where they take place," said Daniel Seaman, director of the Government Press Office.

Fatah called on other Palestinian factions to halt attacks on civilians. The group was reported to have been working on a similar statement and seeking the support of Hamas and other Islamic militant groups as well two months ago. However, that effort was apparently scuttled by Israel's killing of a key Hamas militant in Gaza in a bombing that also killed 14 civilians, including nine children.

In the Gaza Strip, Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin said that "we will continue our holy war in the land of Palestine, despite the ongoing (Israeli) aggression and all conspiracies to end the intefadeh."

In other developments, Israel's interior minister, Eli Yishai, revoked the citizenship of an Arab resident of Jerusalem accused of involvement in bomb attacks that killed five Americans and 30 Israelis. It marked the first time Yishai took such a step, and the decision was denounced as racist by Arab legislators.

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