Disputes in the Palestinian follow up committee
The Jordanian al-Majd newspaper has said that the chairman of the higher follow up committee of the Palestinian opposition, Khaled al-Fahoum, and Abu Ali Mustafa, the assistant secretary general of the People's Front for the Liberation of Palestine were exposed to strong criticism from members of the committee during its meeting last Sunday in Damascus.
The criticism made on al-Fahoum was because of statements he made to Israel Radio in Amman and the second, Abu Ali Mustafa, was because he met in Cairo with a delegation representing the Palestinian government.
The paper also said that al-Fahoum answered those who criticized him by claiming that he thought he was making statements to the Voice of Palestine radio of the Palestinian Authority. The paper added that several representatives of the groups participating in the meeting called on al-Fahoum to resign, a matter which pushed him to leave the session and described the participants in the meeting as "remains of a dead animal."
This, by its turn raised the objection of the secretary of the Fatah movement, Abu Khaled al-Omleh, and Talal Naji, the assistant secretary general of the People's Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command, who asked him to apologize for such a description and to return to preside over the session.
The paper stressed that the intervention made by the chairman of the political bureau of the Hamas movement Khaled Mishal, though he is not a member of the follow up committee, in which he concentrated on the importance of reconciliation and condemned both the stances of al-Fahoum and the people's front for talking with Arafat, prevented the expansion of disputes among members of the committee.
The paper said that upon formulating the short final statement released by works of the committee each of al-Fahoum and Abu Ali Mustafa opposed the article which said the Palestinian Authority has lost its legitimacy when it gave up the national charter until Mishal intervened with al-Fahoum and Abu Ali Mustafa, who then dropped their rejection to this point.