Palestinians "On Verge Of Civil War"
Marking 40 years of Israeli occupation, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned Tuesday that his people are on the verge of civil war. He said the infighting is perhaps worse than living under Israeli military rule.
At the same time, Abbas said he'll urge Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in their upcoming meeting to start talks on a final peace deal.
Israel has said it won't negotiate unless the Islamic militant Hamas, which governs in a coalition with Abbas' Fatah movement, recognizes Israel and renounces violence. The Palestinians say Israel is using the Hamas boycott as a pretext for avoiding negotiations because it is unwilling to make far-reaching concessions.
In other developments:
The loss of East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war was a "black day" for the Palestinians, who paid a heavy price for defeat, Abbas said in a televised speech marking the start of the war on June 5, 1967.
"Regarding our internal situation, what concerns us all is the chaos, and more specifically, being on the verge of civil war," Abbas said.
He said he has spent hundreds of negotiating hours trying to halt the bloodshed, "realizing that what is equal to the danger of occupation, or even more, is the danger of infighting."
Abbas said that in Thursday's meeting, he'll demand the resumption of peace talks that broke down in 2001, in the early months of the second Palestinian uprising.
"I will reaffirm the necessity to start negotiations so we are not stuck in a relentless cycle of violence," Abbas said in a televised speech marking the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Mideast War in which Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, territories the Palestinians want for their state.
Abbas said he'll also raise with Olmert the continued expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the construction of Israel's separation barrier, which slices off about 10 percent of the West Bank.
He said he'll demand the release of Palestinian prisoners — more than 9,000 are being held by Israel — and insist Israel transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in tax rebates it has withheld since Hamas came to power last year. The withheld funds, money owed the Palestinians, deprives them of about two-third of their revenue and increases their dependence on foreign aid.
"If the Israelis want to minimalize the agenda, it is my duty as the elected president of the Palestinian people to put every single issue vigorously on the table," he said.
In Hebron Tuesday, demonstrators faced off against 30 counter-protesters nearby, who carried signs calling them "traitors." Local Palestinians peered out from the windows at the protesters, while dozens of soldiers — including troops on a nearby rooftop — stood guard.
"I'm here to protest the occupation in one of the most violent places in the territories. I want my name down as one of the people who are opposed," said Doron Narkiss, 52, a teacher from Tel Aviv.
David Wilder, a spokesman for the Hebron settlers, called the protest "incitement."
"How can Jews support those trying to kill us?" he said.
Israeli troops and settlers pulled out of the Gaza Strip in 2005, but the Israeli military still keeps a tight grip on Palestinian movement there, controlling cross-border movement of goods, limiting passage to Israel to a trickle of approved laborers and traders and shadowing every movement of fisherman along Gaza's Mediterranean coast.
In the West Bank, hundreds of Israeli roadblocks prevent Palestinians from moving freely, their economy is stifled and their lives are dominated by the ever-present Israeli soldier, bureaucrat or roadblock.
Now Israel is building a network of walls, trenches and barbed-wire fences around the West Bank, jutting into the territory in several places. Going up ostensibly to stop Palestinian militants launching raids into Israel, the barrier puts some 8.5 percent of Palestinian land on the "Israeli" side.
The Palestinians want the West Bank, Gaza and largely Arab east Jerusalem for their future state.
In 1967, Israelis by the tens of thousands streamed to Jerusalem to see and touch the holiest site in Judaism, the Western Wall, off limits to them and under Jordanian control since 1949. Others traveled to biblical sites in the West Bank. The ecstasy was so great that many talked of the coming of the Messiah.
At the same time, terrified Palestinians cowered in their houses, many expecting pain and death at the hands of the Israeli military, which had just vanquished the best of the Arab war machine in less than a week.