Palestine seeks national unity cabinet
Palestine, Politics, 6/19/1998

What shape the new cabinet of the Palestine government will be is not clear yet. What is clear, though, is that the new cabinet, expected to be formed within two weeks at the latest, will regulate a new form of relations between the Palestinian government and the opposition groups within the Palestinian people.

So far, none of the mainstream opposition organizations under the PLO umbrella has expressed an open inclination to join Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's new government. Yet all of them have been parties to a series of contacts and consultations which President Arafat held over the past few days in his effort to reach a consensus with regard to the new government.

Hard-line left wing groups such as George Habash's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Nayef Hawatme's Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine have said they would keep out of Arafat's new cabinet but both sent their top representatives in the Palestinian government areas to attend meetings with Arafat. The Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, which is not a PLO faction, sent its own representatives to meet with Arafat but failed to take a decision in favor of joining the new cabinet. Hamas spokesman Dr. Mahmoud Zahhar confirmed that his movement received an offer to join a Palestinian government cabinet but said that offer cannot be accepted "as long as tension exists between us and the PNA against the background of continued detention by the PNA of Hamas members."

The traditional opposition groups within the PLO, Palestinian observers believe, have no tendency to join the Palestinian government cabinet out of their commitment to their ideological rejection of the Oslo Accords, though in practice they have become partners to those accords. The simple fact that leaders of those opposition groups accepted the idea of crossing the borders and enter the Palestinian government areas under the nose of Israeli troops which check the crossing points into Palestine is a de-facto acceptance of the Oslo Accord, reasoned a leading FATAH supporter in Jerusalem. According to him, those opposition groups have not changed their style of opposition to the PLO despite the fact that many things have changed in the past two decades. The supporter spoke on condition of anonymity saying he did not want to jeopardize the national dialogue between the Palestinian government and the opposition. He said most of the Oslo Accords opponents would like to see the Palestinian government carry on with its quest for political independence "yet they do not want to be active members in the process." "For them, it is easier to criticize the PNA while sitting on the wall and waiting for the results. When the PNA succeeds, the success is for all. And if it fails, God forbid, the blame is going to be solely Arafat's."

"We have discussed matters related to the national unity and to the current challenges posed ahead of us by the government of Benyamin Netanyahu," Suleiman Najab of the Palestinian People's Party (formerly communist party) told reporters after his Wednesday meeting with President Arafat in Gaza. He said the meeting itself was positive and addressed the national burdens and the issue of forming a national unity government. "As a party, we renewed our demand that the Palestinian leadership withdraw its acceptance of the US initiative or proposals regardless of the argument we heard that such an acceptance would force Israel to carry out the second phase redeployment of its troops in the West Bank," he said. He added that to face what he called Israeli arrogance in negotiations, Palestinian national unity "should be strong, firm and based on a wide social and political base."

Najjab's People's Party has one member in today's Palestinian government cabinet, who resigned last year but his resignation has yet to be accepted. Bashir Barghoti, secretary general of the party, resigned from his post as minister of industry after he suffered a severe stroke. However, he later recuperated and returned to his office, leaving his resignation issue pending further ratification by President Arafat.

The PFLP for its part issued a communique after its representative, Jamil Majdalawi, met with the president saying that Arafat's initiative to hold consultations with representatives of opposition groups was "a step in the right direction" towards establishing good relations between the Palestinian government and the opposition. The statement said the consultations aimed to serve the common goals of all Palestinians. Tayseer Khaled of the DFLP told reporters after his meeting with Arafat that all sides agreed to continue the national dialogue in order to confront the Israeli policies and measures.

The challenge that all foresee is what will happen in May 1999. President Arafat has said on a number of occasions that regardless of how the peace process will end, he would declare an independent Palestinian state in the Palestinian government areas as well as in all of the Palestinian territories conquered by Israel in the June 1967 war. Israel, on the other hand, warned that should Arafat fulfill his declaration, Israel would annex those parts of the West Bank still under Israeli military occupation, including the Jewish settlements, leaving to the Palestinian state no more than 40 percent of the total area of the West Bank. Both Palestinian and Israeli officials have warned that such a scenario would lead to an open confrontation between the Palestinian government and Israel. Former coordinator of Israeli government activities in the West Bank and Gaza, Major General (res.) Oren Shahor warned of heavy casualties among Israelis should acts of hostilities break out between the two sides. In interviews he gave to the press over the past year, he mostly blamed the Israeli government and premier Netanyahu himself for the present impasse in the peace process, arguing that the Palestinians have fulfilled their commitments, including the amendment of their national charter.

Another diplomatic bomb that is likely to explode this week is a resolution expected by the UN to accord the PLO an "almost state" status, a move that Israel warned would blow up the peace talks between the two sides. Netanyahu and his justice minister Tzahi Hanegbi said that the whole Oslo concept would collapse if the UN adopts the resolution, which, according to both of them, is a "unilateral move that contravenes the Oslo Accords." The UN General Assembly is due to meet this week after state-members of the non-aligned bloc pledged to support the Arab initiative to promote the PLO status in the UN. The PLO so far has an observer status in the United Nations. A similar move a few months ago was foiled after the European Community refrained from giving its support to the PLO. But today, relations between the Israel and the EC are not in their best mood, following European threats to boycott Israeli products made in West Bank Jewish settlements and following latest rapprochement between the EC and the Palestinian government.

Previous Stories:
  PLO's Qaddoumi: Convening Arab summit is essential   (6/18/1998)
  Palestinian council delays no-confidence vote in government   (6/18/1998)
  Israeli redeployment to take place, the Mordechai factor   (6/17/1998)

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