GAZA CITY, 10 August 2006 — Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh yesterday called for a debate on the future of the Palestinian Authority, in remarks following earlier comments from a Palestinian official asking for the authority to be “dissolved.”
Haniyeh also raised the possibility of dissolving the Palestinian Authority, which was created under peace deals with Israel in 1994, for the first time since taking office. Haniyeh, a senior member of the Hamas party, was speaking during an urgent session of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) to discuss recent developments in the Palestinian territories including the continued detention by Israel of dozens of Palestinian ministers and lawmakers, among them PLC Speaker Aziz Dweik. “All political elites, the presidency, the factions and the government are invited to discuss the future of the Palestinian Authority following this (Israeli) attack,” Haniyeh said.
“Can the Palestinian Authority function under the occupation, kidnappings and assassination?” Haniyeh asked lawmakers in the West Bank via a video link from the Gaza Strip. Asked later if he believed the Palestinian Authority should be dissolved, Haniyeh told reporters in Gaza that Israel’s goal was to make the Palestinian Authority “weak and ineffective.”
“They have raised the necessity to discuss the future of the authority,” he said. Calls for the PA to be dismantled have grown louder in recent days, with Palestinian Liberation Organization spokesman Ghassan Al-Mani issuing a statement earlier yesterday which blamed Israeli obstacles for preventing the functioning of the PA.
Only 78 members out of 132 were present at yesterday’s PLC meeting, with others held in Israeli jails. Most of those detained are senior members of Hamas. The Hamas-led Palestinian government also announced yesterday the mounting of a legal bid to free the lawmakers.
Meanwhile, two Palestinians were killed yesterday and several others were wounded when Israeli helicopters fired three missiles toward a house in the West Bank city of Jenin, witnesses and medical sources said.
The two killed were Amjad Al-Ajamy, 20, and Mohammed Ateeq, 28. The two bodies brought to the hospital were burned and cut into pieces, according to sources.
— With input from agencies
