GAZA CITY, April 29: The Hamas rejected on Tuesday a pledge by Palestinian prime minister-designate Mahmud Abbas to crack down on illegal weapons, saying the arms were needed “to defend ourselves and our land.”
“Hamas rejects this call to hand over our weapons because all our lives, in the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, are in danger from the Israeli policy of assassination. We need to defend ourselves and our land,” a Hamas leader said.
“If the Palestinian Authority asks us to surrender our weapons we will refuse,” he said. “That would be suicidal.”
“This issue will threaten Palestinian security,” he said, adding he did not think the Palestinian Authority would follow through on Abbas’ pledge to “end the chaos of arms,” made during a parliamentary session to approve his new cabinet.
He said Hamas would try “very hard to avoid clashes” if the security forces tried to disarm them, but any response would be decided in conjunction with other Palestinian factions.
Mohammed al-Hindi, of the smaller but just as hardline faction Islamic Jihad, called on Abbas “to protect our weapons against the Zionist occupier.”
“We ask Abbas if he means the weapons of our resistance fighters or not,” he said.
Stopping attacks and disarming hardline factions is a key first step to implementing the international peace plan known as the “roadmap,” which is aimed at establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.
Islamic Jihad’s armed wing warned Abbas Monday not to go ahead with the “Zionist-American roadmap.” The radical Islamic groups want to see a Palestinian state on all the land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea, effectively wiping out Israel.
Mr Abbas had told parliament order needed to be restored in the Palestinian territories for the safety of Palestinians, avoiding a direct call on hardliners to end their attacks on Israel.
“To end the disorder and the chaos of weapons, including the direct threats to citizens, will be one of the main tasks of the government,” Abbas said before a crucial vote of confidence in his new cabinet.
“The only weapons authorised will be weapons used to implement security and public order,” he said.
In Ramallah, independent lawmaker Ghassan Khreisheh said after Abbas’ speech that the task the premier-designate had set himself could have the opposite effect to restoring order.
“It makes no sense. All these weapons were bought by the Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority. He has a chance of succeeding but he he’ll face many problems collecting the weapons,” said Khreisheh.
“It would involve putting more Palestinians in prison and that would cause more problems, and do the opposite in terms of restoring internal calm,” he added. —AFP
