JERUSALEM, 2 January 2005 — Palestinian fighters hoisted Mahmoud Abbas on their shoulders as thousands gave the presidential election frontrunner a hero’s welcome yesterday in a Gaza refugee camp shattered by fighting with Israel.
Abbas, running to succeed Yasser Arafat in a Jan. 9 vote, has branded violence a mistake but has wooed the late leader’s loyalists by upholding his goal of total Israeli withdrawal from occupied lands where Palestinians seek a state.
Some among the 100 black-clad fighters with assault rifles lifted Abbas, dressed in a sober business suit, on to their shoulders. Then they carried him through a swirling crowd of thousands who greeted him to the sprawling Rafah refugee camp.
They draped an Arafat-style keffiyeh (headdress) on Abbas and chanted in fealty, “With our blood and our souls we will redeem you, Abu Mazen,” as they once did for Arafat. Large posters of Abbas and Arafat bedecked the camp.
A rally held in a wedding hall grew so frenzied, with the crowd surging chaotically, that Abbas, 69, had to scramble through a window to leave after delivering a campaign speech.
Abbas had almost canceled the trip because of an Israeli Army raid into the Khan Younis refugee camp just north of Rafah that killed 12 Palestinians.
Fighters in southern Gaza have been carrying out daily mortar bomb and rocket attacks against Jewish settlements Israel has slated for evacuation this year under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s “disengagement” plan.
Abbas later told reporters in Gaza City that Israeli incursions, which he called “escalations”, interfered with the peace process as well as the Palestinian election campaign.
“This is hindering the election process but our people will not allow anyone to obstruct their democratic plans,” he said.
A US-backed moderate, Abbas has urged Palestinians to embrace nonviolence in the struggle for statehood.
In Rafah, Abbas told residents they would “not be defeated and not be humiliated”. The camp, frequent scene of Israeli raids, has lost more lives than any other place in the four-year-old Middle East conflict.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei said yesterday Palestinians should halt armed violence only if there was a credible peace process with Israel leading toward a viable Palestinian state.
In linking calm to peacemaking, Qorei appeared to take a tougher line than Abbas.
It was a further sign of possible tension brewing between Abbas and Qorei. Qorei has also rejected a planned London conference on Palestinian reform endorsed by Abbas, saying what was really needed now was a peace conference.
Qorei said efforts to achieve a cease-fire and advance peacemaking largely depended on Israel, which by contrast has put the onus on Palestinians to lay down arms as a condition for internationally sponsored negotiations to begin. “If there was a credible, serious peace process and a real chance to reach a just and comprehensive settlement, the Palestinians should immediately start negotiations and stop violence,” Qorei said.
For Palestinians, a just outcome is a state in all of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza with East Jerusalem as its capital. Israel aims to quit tiny Gaza but hold on to large West Bank settlements for good and rules out dividing Jerusalem.
“If there is a serious international effort to enable the Palestinians to achieve statehood, nonviolence is an option that has to be tried. If there is a real chance for peace, we will not waste it,” said Qorei, like Abbas seen as a moderate.
— With input from agencies
