Claims that Arafart wants peace are as phoney as claims that he cares about his own people for other than the $$ he can pilfer. These cowards shoot at those who try to negotiate and bring peace. How can civilized nations even think they can negotiate with this savage? The only thing he understands is force.
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Key Palestinians Won't Back Peace Accords
Nov 30, 6:51 AM (ET)
MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH
(AP) A Palestinian gunman from Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades shoots an assault rifle, during a rally against the Geneva Accord...
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RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - Four prominent Palestinians who negotiated a symbolic Mideast peace agreement decided not to attend a launching ceremony in Switzerland this week after Yasser Arafat refused to give written support and shots were fired at a negotiator's home, Palestinian officials said Sunday.
In a meeting overnight, the Palestinian leader turned down a request by two of the officials - Qadoura Fares, a Cabinet minister, and lawmaker Mohammed Horani - to give them a letter supporting the accords, the officials said on condition of anonymity.
The other two officials who refused to go to the Monday ceremony were Minister of Prisoner Affairs Hisham Abdel Razek and lawmaker Khatem Abdel Khader.
The officials' decision, along with a violent protest in the Gaza Strip, raised serious doubts about Palestinian support for the so-called "Geneva Accord."
An Israeli architect of the accords, former Minister Yossi Beilin, said the pullout by the Palestinian negotiators undermined the agreement, but that he remained hopeful.
"I could not have believed a month and a half ago that our work ... became one of the most important things in the recent period," Beilin told Israel Radio. "I hope that it will lead toward a real agreement."
The deal, reached by former Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, would establish a Palestinian state and includes unprecedented concessions by both sides. Israel gives up control of important holy sites, and the Palestinians agree to a formula that would likely preclude a significant return of refugees to Israel.
A recent poll by two U.S. groups showed a narrow majority of Israelis and Palestinians would support such an agreement. It also has been welcomed by much of the international community as fighting between the sides continued. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is reportedly going to meet with the architects of the agreement next month.
But Palestinian opponents to the deal have been increasingly vocal - in some cases violent - because of the refugee issue.
Fares confirmed that he would not be attending the ceremony.
Palestinian officials involved in the negotiations, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Fares and Horani continue to support the accord but do not want to participate in the signing ceremony because of strong opposition in their Fatah Party, which is headed by Arafat.
The Palestinian leader has given some tacit approval to the accords, but has not officially accepted them. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has harshly criticized the deal, which would hand over almost all of the West Bank and Gaza, and some of east Jerusalem, to the Palestinian state.
Palestinian officials involved in the negotiations of the document have been threatened by militant elements.
Masked gunmen fired shots last week at the home of former Palestinian Cabinet minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, a key architect of the agreement. Palestinian security officials said they thought the shots were fired by Fatah militants.
Fares, one of the initiators of the deal, enjoys wide support in the Fatah Party and among the Palestinian public, after having spent 14 years in Israeli jails, and has negotiated the release of prisoners.
In a further sign of opposition, about 200 Palestinians attacked Palestinian negotiators traveling to Geneva on Sunday for the signing ceremony.
Screaming "traitors," the angry Palestinians blocked the road near a crossing into Egypt and beat and kicked the Palestinian negotiators and dignitaries as they emerged from their cars. Unarmed Palestinian police had to restrain the demonstrators to allow the officials to get through.
The officials were traveling to Cairo, and from there were to fly to Switzerland.
The Al Aqsa Brigades - which are loosely affiliated with Fatah - also issue a leaflet condemning the Palestinian negotiators as "collaborators."
On Saturday, about 150 Palestinians protested the treaty in the Balata refugee in the West Bank. |
