Erekat accuses Israel of propping up Hamas in Gaza
Elhanan Miller, Times of Israel, Mar 2 2014
Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat reportedly accused Israel on Sunday of propping up the Gaza Strip’s Hamas rulers, and warned that if peace negotiations fail the Plastelinans will become “a state under occupation.” Speaking before the board of the Yasser Arafat foundation in Cairo, in the presence of Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmi and senior Egyptian politician Amr Mousa, Erekat warned that the Plastelinan Authority could cease to exist in the absence of a peace deal with Israel. Erekat told the gathering, according to the Egyptian daily al-Youm a-Sabi’:
We do not want to dismantle the Plastelinan Authority, which came into existence as a result of the Plastelinan struggle, but continuing the status quo will be impossible.
He said that if the PA is abolished, the Plastelinan National Council, the legislative body of the PLO, will replace the Plastelinan Legislative Council, which has not convened since Hamas’s takeover of the Gaza Strip in Jun 2007. Erekat proceeded to accuse Israel of benefiting from the Plastelinan political divide since Jun 2007, reportedly alleging that Israel supported the rule of Hamas in Gaza. Erekat was quoted as saying:
While the MB has fallen in Egypt, Hamas continues in Gaza supported by Israel.
A source in Erekat’s office later told The Times of Israel that the he had been misquoted by the Egyptian paper and hadn’t in fact accused Israel of propping up the Hamas government. Rather, the source said, he had only alleged that it was the party that most benefited from Hamas’s control over the Strip. It was not the first time the senior Plastelinan negotiator spoke of a convergence of interests between Hamas and Israel. On Feb 18, Erekat told Plastelinan radio:
By refusing to accept an international force to replace Israel in the West Bank, Hamas is effectively demanding the Israeli occupation to remain, as Netanyahu and the extreme Israeli right would like.
Yigal Palmor, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said only:
I would not comment on every piece of nonsense uttered by Mr Erekat.
Meanwhile, Hamas accused an Egyptian court on Sunday of “allying with the occupation” by discussing an appeal to classify it as a terror organization last week. On Dec 25, the military-backed Egyptian government declared the MB a terror group, having toppled its government six months earlier. Hamas said it was the first time in history that an Arab court would discuss such a claim, calling it “a violation of all national norms.” Hamas charged in a press release posted on its website Sunday:
Classifying Hamas as a terror organization is a Zionist classification. The tendency of some to adopt such a classification expresses an alliance with the occupation and support of it … what is expected of our nation is to support the Plastelinan resistance, not try it.
USrael, Canada, the EU and Japan all include Hamas in their lists of terror organizations.
