Campaign Statements Raise Concerns About Commitment
to Peace
(December 2004)
“I will not use weapons against any Palestinian,” Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) said on December 25, 2004. “Israel calls them [the armed groups]
muderers, but we call them strugglers.” A week later, Abbas said he would shield Palestinian
terrorists from Israel and that he has no plans to crack down on
them after the presidential election scheduled for January 9, 2005.
On January 4, 2005, Abbas escalated his anti-Israel rhetoric after an Israeli tank fired two shells
into a field in response to Palestinian mortar attacks, killing seven
Palestinians and wounding six. Referring to those who attacked Israel
as “martyrs,” Abbas condemned Israel as the '“Zionist enemy.”
In an earlier interview with the Associated Press, Abbas defended a series
of campaign appearances with gunmen, saying the Palestinian leadership
has a responsibility to protect its people. “When we see them,
when we meet them, and when they welcome us, we owe them,” Abbas said. “This debt always is to protect them from assassination,
to protect them from killing....”
Earlier, Abbas had launched his election campaign by saying “the use of weapons
is unacceptable because it has a negative impact on our image.”
The Wall Street Journal editorialized afterward that “It's
an instructive choice of words. Mr. Abbas does not reject terrorism
because it is immoral, but because it no longer sells the cause abroad.”
In his Christmas Day speech, Abbas called on Israel to release all Palestinian
prisoners, including murderers and said this was a condition for reaching
peace with Israel.
On the issue of Jerusalem, Abbas said the city would
be the capital of a future Palestinian state. “At the Camp
David summit, the Palestinian leadership rejected an Israeli proposal
to share sovereignty over the Aksa
Mosque,” he said. “They wanted to give the Muslims all what is above the mosque, while Israel would control what's under
it. We continue to reject this offer. We cannot compromise on Jerusalem.”
On the subject of Israel's disengagement from Gaza, Abbas insisted that “The withdrawal from Gaza must only be part of other
withdrawals which should follow. Israel must pull out of all Palestinian
lands occupied in 1967. We must end the occupation.”
In the same speech Abbas said that the refugee issue had to be solved on the basis of UN
Resolution 194. According to Abbas,
there are 4.5 million Palestinian refugees. In a January 3, 2005, appearance, Abbas said Palestinian
refugees and their descendants from the two-year war that followed Israel's
creation in 1948 have the
right to return to their original homes. “We will never forget
the rights of the refugees, and we will never forget their suffering.
They will eventually gain their rights, and the day will come when the
refugees return home," Abbas told a cheering crowd in Gaza City.
On a visit to the Jabalya refugee camp on January 2, 2005, Abbas spoke
out against Kassam rocket
attacks against Israel, saying they were “useless” and that,
“in return, there is a grave, a very grave Israeli escalation.”
While he reiterated his view that the firing of rockets is a “mistake,”
the next day he also said that Palestinians who attack Israel are “freedom
fighters” and that “Palestinians won't take up arms against
each other.”
Secretary of State Colin Powell said he found remarks
by Abbas “disturbing.”
Powell said the Palestinians must end terror. “If they don't move
in that direction, then we're going to be stuck again. So we need reformed
Palestinian leadership that deals with this terrorist threat,”
Powell told NBC's “Meet the Press.” Powell added that Abbas may have to do more than just try to persuade terrorists to stop their
violence. “He may have to undertake operations against them. If
he does that, and shows a real commitment to end terror, I think he
will find an Israeli partner ready to work with him, and he will certainly
find the international community, and especially the United States,
ready to play an important role,” Powell said.
Israeli officials, meanwhile, have tried to downplay
statements by Abbas,
maintaining that he would ultimately be judged by his actions, not his
words, in providing security and fighting terrorism.
Sources: Jerusalem Post,
(December 27, 2004, January 2 & 4, 2005); Wall Street Journal,
(December 31, 2004); AP, (January 1 & 3, 2005) |